00:00:00,267	S1:
That was Tom. That was Tom. Okay. All right. We're going to call the roll call. Monday, February 2nd. Um, select board meeting to order. Um, we'll do a roll call vote. Uh, we'll start with Tom Myers.

00:00:15,067	S2:
Tom Myers here.

00:00:16,501	S1:
Ben. Ben Kaluza here. And Bill Olsen's here. Uh, we should be joined by remotely by Rose Mary and Bill Wilson, and we'll just bill it. I mean, Joe, let me know when they get on. Yeah. Uh, a lot to go over today. So let's, um, jump into things. Uh, board and committee opens a plethora of openings. Lots of opportunities to get involved. So I'm going to read these out. Affordable housing trust has affordable housing has one opening. Conservation Commission has two openings. Community Preservation Committee has two openings, one opening for a member of historic district commission and one opening for an at large member. Council on Aging has won. Opening. The Essex North Shore Agricultural Technical School Committee has one opening and that is appointed through the moderator. Pinkham has two openings, also through the moderator. The Hamilton Environmental Impact Committee has two openings, and I think we're going to be discussing one tonight. One of those two. Or is that how that works? One of those two. One of those two. Historic District commission has two openings for three year terms, two openings for two year terms. And one of those must be a resident of the historic district and one must be a resident realtor. Uh, Hamilton Recreation Board has one opening for a Hamilton resident, and the Human Rights Commission has one at large opening.

00:01:38,801	S3:
Rosemary joined at 706.

00:01:40,601	S1:
And. Rosemary. Uh, Rosemary, just say you're here. Are we here? You can hear us. We can hear you.

00:01:49,567	S4:
Rosie you're muted. Can you? There you are.

00:01:54,868	S5:
Rosie Kennedy here.

00:01:56,200	S6:
Thank you.

00:01:57,367	S1:
Good to see you. Uh, public comment. Um, we got a lot to do tonight, so there'll be some opportunities throughout the meeting to talk, but, um, we'll open it up. Now, if anybody wants to take a maximum of three minutes to speak, where should they speak, Joe? All right. Right here at the table. Yeah. Yeah. Just come on up to the black table.

00:02:17,667	S7:
That's the the microphone.

00:02:19,200	S1:
Yeah, it'll it'll pick you up. It'll pick you up. Yeah, yeah.

00:02:21,868	S8:
Okay. My name is Emmett Holt to Manor Hill Road. And I'm back tonight to speak to you on behalf of the Environmental Impact Committee. Uh, this is my fourth time in front of you guys. And I think it was this meeting last year that I kind of kicked it off in February. I was going to do it last year. Uh. I'm here. Uh, you know, to talk to you about, you know, climate leader certification, the specialized stretch energy code, and getting that, um, the town meeting more for the voters to decide whether they want it or not. Now, the urgency is not certification. It's moved on to high school and middle school. It's the biggest opportunity that that that facility is the biggest environment, has the biggest environmental impact of any facility in the town of Hammond. And so it's a it's a real opportunity when we're going to put the new roof on it, which will be staged for electrification, to do it at the same time. So the 25 year warranty, like the roof does. So I mean, it's a long term investment and that is really the urgency. And our board and the Wenham cast has already gotten approval from the winner. Well, the Windham task has gotten approval from their select board to Proceed.

00:03:54,100	S1:
So it'll be on their town warrant.

00:03:55,701	S8:
No, they're doing everything to get it on it. Okay. Correct. And they wouldn't give me that authorisation. And when I was here last month and the television presenter was really pulled it, you know, we're not sure where we're going. So now we're stuck in neutral. And I need you guys to give the authorisation. Either go for it or don't go for it to do that. And so we're not asking you guys to make the decision of whether you want to go to the details. I sent everybody an email mid-afternoon today with the analysis that I did to follow up on the affordability discussion, and that seemed to be the concern. And I've met with Rich Moloney, Denis Crone and Mary Allen at Building Committee and have the detail of the 15 houses that were built over the last three years and what the impact would be to those houses.

00:04:48,167	S3:
Okay.

00:04:48,767	S8:
And when and there has been a little bit of confusion with me to that. Solar is required under and over. The 4000 square foot is just the size unless trees obstruct it. So plant a tree, you know, build your house under a tree if you don't want, so that's fine. But the good news is, in the analysis, all the new costs are totally covered and offset by the solar put on the house. So is it cheaper when you amortize investment cheaper. So.

00:05:22,300	S7:
And the I'm sorry, can we do a quick quick quick.

00:05:24,901	S1:
We're going to talk about this during the Warren article which is in there not numbered here. But like the six the six topics I think we can wait for that discussion.

00:05:33,400	S7:
That's fine. Are you able to stick around a little bit?

00:05:35,267	S8:
Yeah. Well that's my my last thing with that. You know, I'd encourage 101, you know, to come back. Whatever we can do to give you guys some information.

00:05:47,868	S1:
I made note that we're. Yeah. Because we Joe and I talked to it. We have the review draft for post war articles, so we want to talk about that as a right now in the right now it's in the draft. There's a warrant article. We haven't we haven't removed it as currently in there. Okay. It's a draft. Okay. So it's on our topic to talk about tonight.

00:06:05,667	S7:
Thanks.

00:06:06,100	S1:
Great.

00:06:06,667	S7:
Thank you.

00:06:07,868	S3:
Selectman Wilson joined at 7:06 p.m..

00:06:11,300	S9:
And I'll comment how I appreciate these chairs. These are.

00:06:16,167	S1:
Probably.

00:06:16,801	S4:
The common meaning I try to make them comfortable. Thank you.

00:06:20,901	S10:
Hello. My name is Jeanie Moran, 21 Garfield Avenue and the current chair of Aggies and Environmental Impact Committee. So I'm here tonight probably because hopefully you'll be a part of that video. We are thrilled to have them on this great experience of, um, a whole career in alternative energy. Um, but I'm also following up on what, uh, Emma has just said That our committee exists to remind people it exists to advise the Select board as we work toward Hamilton's goal of net zero carbon by 2040. You might remember that this. The town voted for this in the final resolution of April 2022 at our town meeting. And this is ten years faster than the Massachusetts goal, which is net zero carbon by 2050. So you see, the whole state is on the same track. We're all going the same place. Hamilton, as a climate leader, chose to go faster. So we are climate leader. If you think about our composting program, which is in place for way over ten years, I was one of the original people that paid $75 so that we could have our compost picked up. Um, and what's great about that, it's not only wonderful for the environment to get all this compost, you know, back to the earth and to have healthy soil. But it saves us money because at least in the past, composting was half of what the trash was being picked up by Casella. ET cetera. So we also believed that becoming climate leaders status, which is what we're focusing on, hoping to apply June 30th, which if we get accepted, we have to wait till February to apply for the $1 million grant. So there is a timing that's going on this because the money is set to last through 2027. We don't know. You know how much after that. So again, one more example. Of course Joe is well aware. You're well aware aware that our historic town hall will be carbon free reopens this year. And this is very exciting because we are one of the first to get in in Massachusetts to do this. So we want to apply for this climate leader status. We've done all the necessary work. We just need two little things EV first, which does not mean we have to have all electric vehicles for the town. It means that we first look at the electric vehicle and see if it wouldn't work for us. If it's a fire truck, we're buying. No, we don't even have EV fire trucks. At least from my knowledge. So you look at, uh, is this going to work? Is it a car that's used just from 9 to 5 during the day? Yeah, that might make sense. Um, and then the other one is to adopt a centralized code, and that's what we're going to be talking about for the why am I plea is that regardless of your own personal feelings about the need to specialize code or not, allow the voters of Hamilton to make that decision. So if it's on the warrant, it can be out there in front of them and they can vote yes or no. Thank you very much for your time.

00:09:31,601	S1:
Thank you for coming.

00:09:32,767	S4:
Thanks, Jean. There's nobody. There are no members. Anybody else? No members of the public on this?

00:09:41,200	S4:
Okay. All right. We have a.

00:09:43,667	S1:
Small.

00:09:43,901	S4:
Content.

00:09:44,667	S1:
Small consent agenda. We have meeting minutes from January 5th. Um, we have the, um, request for the funding for CoA, which we did last year, which was went out with the water bill, and they said they would like to repeat that effort because it actually said it raised them like five. I don't know if it's one donation or 50 donations, but it was. But it was a nice way to raise money. It had no cost to them. And then someone has given us $100 gift for the Hamilton Council, so we have to vote to accept that. So I'll take a motion that we can have further discussion. Anybody want to make a motion to approve the consent agenda?

00:10:21,467	S7:
I'll make a motion to.

00:10:22,767	S5:
Move that we approve the consent agenda.

00:10:25,167	S1:
I have a second.

00:10:26,267	S7:
Second.

00:10:26,767	S1:
Second. Any further discussion?

00:10:29,300	S7:
Did we get the. On the gift piece? I saw there was like an email in the packet.

00:10:34,100	S4:
It's just it's up to the discretion of the council on how they want to spend it, but it's for improvement or, you know, enhancements at the Council on Aging.

00:10:41,067	S7:
Okay. And there was no. Did they have to do any paperwork or something like that?

00:10:45,267	S4:
You have to accept the gift. That's it. That's not how it works. All right. We may create more paperwork if they're very, very large gifts by, like, $400. All right.

00:10:52,067	S9:
Cool. And do we have a policy that, you know, might say 100 or less? You don't need to get select board approval or does everything need to come to this board?

00:10:59,467	S4:
You know, we feel like the policy we've been going by is that, you know, we bring it to the select board. If it's um, if it's an amount under, say, $1,000, we might suggest that we put it on the consent agenda like we're doing. So you don't have to have a whole lot of conversation about it. And if it was a bigger donation, we'd have them come in and have a presentation, etc.. But okay.

00:11:16,767	S9:
That's great.

00:11:17,267	S7:
All right. Thanks.

00:11:19,701	S1:
Uh, we'll do a roll call vote. Uh, we'll start online with, uh, Tom Meyers.

00:11:29,200	S2:
Um, Meyers. I.

00:11:31,000	S1:
Uh, Rosemary.

00:11:32,801	S5:
Rosie Kennedy, I.

00:11:34,701	S1:
Uh, Bill Wilson.

00:11:35,501	S9:
Yeah. Bill Wilson, I.

00:11:36,868	S1:
Bengals.

00:11:37,501	S7:
Bengals.

00:11:38,000	S1:
I am William Wilson. I so good to have everybody here tonight in step lock and step. All right. So next item on the agenda is we have a poll. We have three poll hearings.

00:11:48,100	S4:
Two poll hearings.

00:11:48,801	S1:
Two poll hearings and.

00:11:49,667	S4:
One underground.

00:11:50,400	S1:
One underground okay. And we have a representative from National Grid here. So we have a seat up here and walk us through what you'd like to have us approve tonight.

00:12:01,601	S11:
Oh, good evening everyone. My name is Michael Rosati, and I'm representing the National grid at 44 River Street in Beverly. And, yeah, so we're on the first section, which is the one on one Highland Street where petition is going to fall. One three inch conduit from 342309, and one is about two feet into the property of 951. And.

00:12:29,367	S12:
I'll get you out of the bottom of this map right here. Yep.

00:12:36,067	S1:
It's actually the last one in the packet.

00:12:37,868	S4:
Yeah. Okay.

00:12:38,968	S1:
And this is for what is the purpose of this one?

00:12:41,000	S11:
It's just for a service to service upgrade.

00:12:43,167	S1:
Service upgrade. Okay.

00:12:44,567	S4:
Come on.

00:12:46,067	S1:
So any aesthetic impact, anybody? Or is this all just underground? You don't see any of it?

00:12:50,267	S11:
It's just underground. Yeah, just like that.

00:12:52,601	S1:
And this is for the resident of 951. Correct. Okay.

00:12:57,067	S7:
Crossing the sidewalks or things like that.

00:13:00,067	S11:
On the sidewalk. Cole is, like, two feet off his property, so it's only about two feet.

00:13:04,467	S7:
Okay. So you're not going under the sidewalk? It's on their side of the sidewalk.

00:13:08,167	S11:
Yeah.

00:13:09,167	S4:
Okay. This one here? Yeah.

00:13:11,067	S1:
Uh.

00:13:12,167	S12:
Nope.

00:13:12,767	S1:
Nope. Just one Highland. Walden field.

00:13:15,667	S7:
Oh, good.

00:13:17,000	S1:
Keep it to the last one.

00:13:18,000	S4:
Get them in there.

00:13:19,167	S1:
Well, yeah.

00:13:21,767	S4:
Sorry about that. Okay.

00:13:24,667	S1:
Keep going.

00:13:27,467	S1:
I'll do the underground first. Right there. So the dotted line is the. Is the new work. Okay.

00:13:37,367	S1:
Something else.

00:13:38,100	S4:
We need the underground for a second. Okay. Gotcha.

00:13:39,968	S1:
Anything else that we need to review? This one's pretty simple.

00:13:43,567	S4:
You just have to see if there's anybody in the public who has comment. It's a public hearing, so it doesn't look like there's anybody in the public that has comment.

00:13:52,567	S1:
Yeah. It looks like 33 Walden Field Road is a, uh, is an a butter. But 35 Walden Field Road is the uh is the as the applicant so obviously not in the butter. Um. All right. Yeah. Is there any, uh, Butters, you have any comments? Questions?

00:14:07,567	S12:
All right.

00:14:08,968	S1:
So, uh, do we do each one separately, Joe?

00:14:11,801	S4:
Yeah. Um, yes, I would, I would, I would.

00:14:14,901	S1:
So I have a motion to accept the I'd read it correctly, the, um, to which I read it, as in terms of this number right here.

00:14:25,167	S4:
Yeah.

00:14:26,167	S1:
And what's it what does W.R. stand for? Do I have a motion to accept an approved work request? 31259512 near Walden Field Road at 951 High Street for underground new underground service to moved. Do I have a second?

00:14:42,100	S7:
Second.

00:14:43,567	S1:
Any further discussion or questions?

00:14:45,567	S9:
Seems straightforward.

00:14:46,667	S1:
Okay. So do roll call vote. Start with, uh, Tom Myers.

00:14:54,000	S1:
I know he's picking up his kid, so, uh, we'll go with Rosemary.

00:14:58,567	S5:
Rosie Kennedy, I.

00:14:59,868	S1:
Bill Wilson.

00:15:00,467	S9:
Bill Wilson.

00:15:01,267	S2:
Myers I sorry.

00:15:02,367	S1:
That was fine. Thank you. Bengals I believe Olson I. Okay, so we have five eyes. Yep. All right. Which one do I do next?

00:15:11,868	S11:
Um, we can do the in two. Three.

00:15:15,367	S1:
Okay.

00:15:16,100	S11:
Okay. And, um. Yeah. So for this one we are petitions was called a new poll to replace, um, so the property of 8230,

00:15:28,167	S11:
we're getting rid of our tree guy wire because he needs to get rid of that tree. So we're going to install it and install a guide to guide support basically.

00:15:38,067	S7:
Okay.

00:15:41,400	S1:
So it's a new poll. But the poll is only going to be providing support. Yes, there's going to be no wires in the port other than the guide wire.

00:15:51,601	S7:
That a new stub poll doesn't have a guy off of it to the ground. It's only just.

00:15:56,100	S11:
Straight. Yes it.

00:15:57,167	S7:
Does.

00:15:57,400	S11:
Okay, that's fine with that one.

00:16:00,067	S1:
All right, so it's another poll on the wire and is. And what what resident is removing a tree?

00:16:05,667	S11:
Uh, 82. I think it's on the street. Sorry.

00:16:09,567	S1:
Okay, so they're getting rid of a tree by adding a poll, basically, because the poll is going to be where the tree was.

00:16:16,667	S11:
It's going to be on the poll will be on public property.

00:16:19,100	S1:
But it's going to be. But in place of a tree, it's going to be a poll. Yes. I mean, so yeah, I mean, I don't know that you have much of an option, right?

00:16:26,868	S9:
Yeah.

00:16:27,767	S1:
Because it's not really they're not replacing a poll. They're just getting rid of a tree which is holding up a pole. Yeah.

00:16:32,801	S11:
Yeah.

00:16:34,567	S1:
Are there any butters here for that? It's a lot more butters than that.

00:16:38,767	S4:
One does not appear to be any harder. Butters present.

00:16:44,300	S7:
We're done that way.

00:16:45,868	S1:
What is that? Sorry.

00:16:46,667	S7:
I was just asking Bill Wilson. Do you live down that way?

00:16:49,067	S9:
Uh, no. No.

00:16:52,701	S1:
Okay. I'll make a motion afterwards. Do I have a motion to approve?

00:17:00,467	S1:
Job order. Right.

00:17:02,200	S4:
Yep.

00:17:03,868	S1:
31227793.

00:17:06,100	S9:
Oh, no. The other.

00:17:06,667	S1:
One. Oh, sorry. Job order 31228965 at Durham Ave and Highland Street. Moved specifically for 81.

00:17:15,868	S4:
Moved by Bill.

00:17:16,367	S1:
Wilson, 82. Sorry, 82 out street move by. Okay. And do I have a second?

00:17:19,467	S7:
Second.

00:17:20,267	S9:
Just a quick question. Why are some job orders versus a work release? What's the difference between a job order and a work release? Your numbering.

00:17:29,968	S1:
System.

00:17:30,601	S11:
You are assuming it's the same thing. It is.

00:17:34,000	S9:
Okay.

00:17:36,000	S4:
Just got coded one way. That's all.

00:17:40,100	S7:
Let's do the cost.

00:17:42,567	S9:
Potentially, yeah.

00:17:43,667	S4:
Okay.

00:17:44,000	S9:
You got a second thing?

00:17:45,767	S1:
Yeah. I'm just reading everything. Maybe I need more questions.

00:17:47,801	S9:
Underground. And that's poles.

00:17:49,400	S7:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:17:53,601	S7:
All right. Third one.

00:17:55,567	S1:
Yeah. We didn't vote.

00:17:56,267	S4:
We didn't. He's making sure he doesn't have any last minute questions.

00:17:59,767	S1:
All right, so roll call. Vote. We'll go. Uh, Tom. Irish.

00:18:07,667	S1:
Rose.

00:18:08,000	S5:
Mary Rosa Kennedy, I Tom.

00:18:11,968	S2:
Tom meyers, I.

00:18:13,000	S1:
Bill Wilson.

00:18:13,601	S9:
Bill Wilson, I.

00:18:14,868	S1:
Ben.

00:18:15,400	S7:
Ben.

00:18:15,968	S1:
I and William Wilson I. All right. And the last one is as 40 Asbury Street.

00:18:25,167	S11:
Um, so for this one we are petitions to install the new poll controls 5554 so that new poll is going to be used to install the low break, which is just a safety device that reduces outages or helps reduces abuse.

00:18:46,000	S4:
So the new poll with the X on it is the one that's going to have the low break. Yes. Got it.

00:18:50,601	S1:
So so there's no poll there currently. No, no I mean once again we're not a town that likes to add polls. So there's no way to add that low break out of the existing poll.

00:19:00,267	S11:
So we, we um, so poll 584 has an existing primary siphon. So there's no room to install a low grade. And five eight, five already has another device on it. Not sure what it was, but there's no one just above. There you go.

00:19:16,000	S9:
How far apart are those two polls?

00:19:18,167	S11:
40ft.

00:19:18,801	S4:
Does that say? Yeah, 40ft. Between 584 and 5. Eight, 4.5 and 50ft. It looks like Between the new pole and the 5.85.

00:19:28,767	S1:
I'm sorry. What? What? What is it? Why is the technology or the need change to add something that is not needed now?

00:19:36,367	S11:
What? So. So our plan is usually he's usually tasked as he. Where I guess more of the outages are happening. And you just find the, um. You try to find a way to, I guess, reduce outages. And he found this spot to be, um, a great spot to put that that device. I guess that should help reduce outages.

00:19:53,000	S1:
So it reduces outages. Although we haven't had a lot. We've been doing pretty well over the last.

00:19:57,367	S4:
Largely because we've been letting them do their work. Yeah.

00:20:02,767	S1:
So not a good thing to say no to.

00:20:05,601	S4:
Well, correct me if I'm wrong. What happens is, you know, if you don't have a low break, then when a certain wire goes down, a whole area is out. With a low break, you can switch it and then backfill power from another part of the grid to the part from the break forward. So you turn other people back on sooner while you're still fixing the down wire. I nailed that.

00:20:25,100	S7:
Yeah.

00:20:26,100	S1:
So, Tim, this happens to be near, you know, your parking lot for an iPad. Do you have any, uh, comments or concerns about having to pull.

00:20:33,367	S13:
Just in the same line? Yeah, it's in the same line of the other two poles.

00:20:37,000	S4:
Won't be an issue.

00:20:39,567	S7:
There's another buried there.

00:20:44,767	S7:
Yeah. Okay.

00:20:49,567	S1:
All right. Do I have a motion to approve? Job order 31227793 at 40 Asbury Street.

00:20:58,868	S5:
So moved.

00:21:00,367	S1:
So I have a second. Second. Any further discussion? Okay. What do you.

00:21:04,367	S5:
Got? I have a question.

00:21:05,167	S1:
Yeah. Go. Please. Yes. Go ahead. Rosemarie.

00:21:07,567	S5:
Um, just quickly. Um, so I'm, I'm presuming all the the Butters have been notified here and have no issues with that.

00:21:18,567	S1:
Yeah. There we there's no butters here, as I've comments and I'm looking at the the butters list for the one we're talking about right now. And, um.

00:21:29,667	S4:
It's mostly commercial. Rosie, there's no it's the, uh, it's right in front of Peyton Park, the parking lot on Asbury Street at Park, and then the businesses across the street. So there's no, um, residents. That would be.

00:21:39,267	S1:
Yeah. There are no butters on this one.

00:21:42,000	S5:
Okay.

00:21:42,701	S1:
Yeah, this one has no butters listed. Is that correct?

00:21:46,400	S11:
Uh, I think the real 83 or 85, the park and. Yeah.

00:21:52,767	S5:
All right. Here.

00:21:54,667	S7:
Yeah.

00:21:55,000	S1:
The, uh. There's no residential butters on this. On this proposal.

00:21:59,367	S2:
Okay.

00:21:59,801	S1:
Cuz they're far enough away. Seems like.

00:22:03,267	S7:
The easiest one is 89 Asbury, which is on the other side of.

00:22:06,567	S1:
The tracks. Yeah.

00:22:08,167	S7:
Um, they've got the.

00:22:09,901	S1:
Calkins on the record. I'm not in favor of adding poles, but it sounds like if this is to prevent outages, and it's in a commercial area of town, and our, uh, DPW directors now have an issue with it. I would say I would approve it then. So just going on record saying that. But we'll do a roll call vote. Uh, I'll start with Tom.

00:22:35,100	S1:
Sorry.

00:22:35,767	S4:
You're mute.

00:22:36,267	S1:
Tom. It didn't catch pick. It didn't pick you up.

00:22:38,868	S4:
Yeah.

00:22:40,567	S2:
Tom Myers I.

00:22:42,000	S1:
Uh, Rosemary.

00:22:43,868	S5:
Rosie Kennedy, I.

00:22:45,100	S1:
Bill Wilson.

00:22:46,367	S9:
Yeah. Bill Wilson I am. And you said it reduces outages. I don't know if there's a plan that maybe suggests other areas or town a higher prone to outages. That'd be good information to give us. You know, for other, other areas you might come back later to, to look at. But I on this for sure. Bill Wilson.

00:23:02,400	S7:
Bengal is the I.

00:23:03,400	S1:
William Wilson.

00:23:04,100	S7:
I.

00:23:06,868	S1:
Had there any more as you said. Good. Is there any more. Yeah we had now a few this years any more like how are they. We're aware of like how far. How did these things start getting planned before we hear about them?

00:23:16,467	S9:
Yeah. If there's a study. Joe, let's try to get our hands on it.

00:23:18,868	S4:
Okay. I'll talk to, uh. What's the name of our new rapid. National grid. It's not faith anymore, right? Elaine. Elaine. We'll reach out to Elaine and see if she can get us some a look at the plant. Sounds good.

00:23:34,367	S4:
Okay, you're.

00:23:35,367	S1:
You are all set. And you sign.

00:23:37,267	S9:
Up. Thank you, thank you.

00:23:38,400	S1:
Michael, sign this exercise now, or I have a line here to sign, but I'm not sure who.

00:23:43,868	S4:
Um, no. We'll get something.

00:23:45,868	S1:
Later. Okay. All right. I'm not sure we're all right.

00:23:48,367	S9:
I was thinking.

00:23:49,367	S8:
In my.

00:23:49,601	S9:
Head. You ask? I'm not sure if that's how close or not.

00:23:54,167	S1:
We will move on to.

00:23:55,968	S9:
Right away, but. Yeah, Mr. Kim.

00:23:57,868	S1:
Olsen on.

00:23:59,367	S9:
Asbury Street. So I said no, but then went, oh.

00:24:02,267	S1:
Department head report.

00:24:04,000	S9:
Yeah. I don't recognize.

00:24:04,801	S1:
The town hall report. And how's the snow removal going? It's going over snow and ice. Oh, there's no nice budget.

00:24:10,167	S9:
No. Hi.

00:24:10,868	S7:
Yeah, well, you know where Linden is. Yeah. And then the Moynihan's one.

00:24:14,467	S9:
Yeah, but I didn't know. Yeah, I know. Yeah. That's maybe. Yeah. Where's Durham?

00:24:21,567	S7:
Sorry.

00:24:22,000	S9:
Yeah.

00:24:24,701	S1:
So the mic is over here for Rosemary. I feel like I should just speak sort of a little louder. Clearly. Just so the mic picks you up, but it should pick you up.

00:24:32,501	S13:
DPW director here in Hamilton here to answer your questions. Give you guys a report on town hall, um, top water rates, all the good stuff. So, um, after that answer, we can, you know, if you have any questions as I go. Uh, definitely ask him now. I'll give you. Yeah.

00:24:51,300	S9:
Awesome.

00:24:52,000	S1:
Do you want us to ask questions or do you have a prepared.

00:24:54,567	S13:
I'm sure you guys have questions. Okay. Um.

00:24:57,167	S1:
Have you been.

00:24:57,567	S13:
Prepared for anything? But, uh, I can go run down a lot of the key, uh, projects that we're working on. Um, you know, town Hall is obviously the number one, uh, on my list right now. Uh, I did give Joe. I'm not sure if you have some pictures that.

00:25:10,367	S4:
Oh, I left him in my car. I'm sorry. Sorry.

00:25:12,200	S13:
Uh, I can I'll send you some pictures of updating, um, where we're at. We're inside. Uh, pretty much finished with the final trim. Finish trim. Uh, they just, uh, took off the flooring. So we're down to the hardwood. Uh, getting ready to strip the hardwood. Um, and, uh.

00:25:30,000	S7:
They're refinishing it.

00:25:31,100	S13:
Refinished the hardwood. Correct. It's sad. It's like a Doug fir. It's it's it's beautiful. It's just covered over, uh, for several years. Um, with, uh, board, uh, and then a, like, a linoleum mat. Linoleum, and then stack. So, um, you see, it's a lot of there's a lot of character in the floor. Uh, I think it's gonna be nice when it's finished.

00:25:52,767	S7:
All right. So big.

00:25:54,167	S13:
Yeah. And, um, the upstairs. I think that's the picture that Joe was showing. Uh, that's the meeting room. Yeah. Yeah. Now, with the carpet squares removed. Uh, so that floor will be refinished as well. Um, and it's going to really complement the room.

00:26:08,567	S4:
That's a little bit hard to see, but it's, uh, that's the original floor that was underneath what used to be the upstairs offices. And that'll be the new meeting room floor.

00:26:17,167	S13:
Um, it's pretty much a gym floor. That's kind of what it looks like.

00:26:21,067	S4:
Old basketball.

00:26:21,767	S13:
Floor. It was back in the day.

00:26:23,267	S5:
Uh, the dance floor.

00:26:25,100	S13:
Dance floor. Dance floor. Yeah. That's right. Um, so that the progress, uh, uh, project is progressing. Uh, we are working on almost done with the geothermal, uh, system in the basement. Um, and, uh, getting ready for inside, uh, floors and final painting. Uh, acoustical ceiling, the grids all in. Uh, h back is all in. And then, uh, they're getting out into the dish now and finishing the roughing of all the electricity or electrical systems and things like that. Uh, so I think we're, you know, we were shooting for February. I think we're probably a few months out on that. But I think the goal was to get everybody back in the springtime. Uh, and I think we're going to hit that, uh, we're pushing for that. Um, I'd like to be in by May. Um, and I think.

00:27:14,167	S4:
That was always my goal was me anyway. So, uh, so.

00:27:17,200	S7:
You're still waiting on power? Uh.

00:27:19,467	S8:
No power.

00:27:20,367	S13:
Uh, you know, a couple weeks now of holidays and now weather and things like that. I think, uh, you know, talking with the contractor. Um, we'll discuss that a little bit more. Um, but it's really in their court now to get the power conduits put in. Okay. Uh, National Grid has put the new pole in there. Got power to the new pole. Uh, so once the conduits are in and, uh, transformer pad set, um, then they can come in with the power.

00:27:46,267	S7:
All right, so you said HVAC is in, but it's not, uh, assuming it's not filled, like having, uh, flushed and filled.

00:27:53,701	S13:
All the systems will be in place, uh, waiting for power. Okay, so that's kind of, um, you know, the next milestone. Okay. So, um, you know, outside that site, work is going to have to happen, you know, springtime first to the in spring They.

00:28:10,267	S7:
Haven't for like the HVAC with the geothermal. I'm assuming it's kind of you have hydraulics to the ground source heat pump, but that system is not filled yet. Is that.

00:28:21,667	S13:
Correct? It's not. There's no electricity to it. Yeah there is. No it's not.

00:28:26,000	S4:
There's no groundwater or water? No. Yeah.

00:28:27,567	S13:
So it's they're working on because.

00:28:29,200	S4:
The pumps.

00:28:29,567	S13:
Can't work as good.

00:28:30,467	S4:
Real power.

00:28:31,067	S7:
So as I mentioned, they're not filling the system. We don't have any power. We don't have any heat. So they're not trying to. Sorry. When we said HVAC was done and there was no power. I get.

00:28:38,467	S4:
No more. Like all of the the piping and systems are in place with.

00:28:43,167	S13:
Ducts in every, uh, the, uh, fresh air, uh, return air. All that duct work is in, um, and now connecting the geothermal. Um, they're working on the manifold inside, so it's still a part. Uh, no water is available. Um, you get the electricity of the building, and I think we can move forward with, uh, operating some of those systems. Um, you know, even during the last bit of construction, uh.

00:29:08,567	S7:
They have time built in for commissioning for the HVAC set in their schedule. They got a couple of weeks worth of.

00:29:14,367	S13:
They got a yeah, a couple of weeks. I think we're I believe the schedule was looking at in March time frame okay for commissioning. Um, early April.

00:29:24,767	S7:
Yeah. And, um, it never goes exactly how it's supposed to go.

00:29:29,467	S13:
Yeah. And when I'm, when I'm kind of. It's the same system as what one has. So it's the same group doing the same contractor. Uh, so they're, you know, if anything, they were kind of learn some things and hopefully it's, you know, it's working. Well, as far as I know. That's good.

00:29:44,501	S7:
It's it's like copy and paste then. Yeah.

00:29:48,100	S13:
For sure. Um, the other thing I have in front of you, uh, which is another, um.

00:29:53,167	S4:
You know, Rosie, I sent you this by email. You should have it. And then I'll put it up on screen, um, as well.

00:29:59,767	S8:
Yeah.

00:30:00,200	S13:
Uh, so I.

00:30:02,100	S8:
Think, uh.

00:30:02,701	S9:
Just what are you moving to, water or.

00:30:04,667	S13:
Water?

00:30:05,300	S9:
Uh, just one more.

00:30:06,100	S1:
Baby every.

00:30:06,601	S9:
Time. I didn't know if there was any costs.

00:30:09,701	S13:
What's that?

00:30:10,601	S9:
Town hall. Are we moving off town hall?

00:30:12,200	S13:
Uh, no.

00:30:13,300	S9:
I did. Just one more question from a cost perspective. Sounds like everything's going as planned. You know, the move in is the spring. We've always thought that. Any surprises cost wise? I know we gave a little more money from the, um, CPC. I don't know if that's needed. Still or not. Or still to be determined.

00:30:28,567	S13:
Yeah. The cost. The surprise was we didn't get the Ada grant for 250. I got we got denied again. Um, more. So, uh, it seems like there was some, uh, some, uh, new, um, a new requirement that wasn't, in my opinion. And probably Joe would, uh, concur, as was not clearly indicated, um, that there was a change this year in the application process. Um, it was not, uh, evident. It was. It was, in my opinion, buried in some, uh, the fine print.

00:31:02,467	S4:
In my opinion, it was a technicality. So we've applied for this. We've applied for this grant four years in a row. And as a condition of the grant, you have to have an assigned Ada coordinator. And we had one we named him and we told him when he was appointed every year, added it to the grant this year without a lot of fanfare or even notice to applicants. They said that in order for that to count, that that Ada coordinator had to register with the Mass Office of Disabilities. We missed it. We missed it in the application because it was a new requirement, but it wasn't really outlined as such as a new requirement. Hey, don't forget this. It was just listed in pages of. And since we'd done the grant application for years in a row, we thought we had it. And they said that that was a fatal flaw, which I said, well, if it's a fatal flaw, then you should probably highlight that in your directions in the application.

00:31:52,267	S1:
Is there an appeals process or how's that work?

00:31:54,300	S4:
No, because all the grant moneys been awarded.

00:31:56,501	S9:
I just don't know if other communities or cities or towns had the same issue.

00:32:00,701	S4:
And I don't know why they were. They were. They were. They were.

00:32:05,567	S7:
Oversubscribed.

00:32:06,200	S4:
They were oversubscribed. Anyway. There was. I think 88 communities that that got grants and something like 300 communities that applied. So, um.

00:32:14,300	S13:
So, um, in a way, it's good that we move the money, you know, got money when we did for CPC the extra money. Uh, very much appreciate that. Uh, I think we are tracking right around, you know, 10% was my goal on contingency. I think we're going to be around there. Maybe I'm hopefully less. When it's all said and done, uh, there is some ads and deletions, uh, that will come up at the end of the kind of near the end of the project. So, um, I'm tracking around 10%. Mark is what I'm trying to hit. So.

00:32:42,200	S1:
But do we what about, like, winter conditions because of the weather? Have we had this there been any like, what are we doing special for winter conditions you're doing.

00:32:50,701	S13:
To working winter conditions.

00:32:52,467	S1:
So it's their cost. It's not like an allowance okay. But you do. You're doing the snow removal for them or are they removing their own staff?

00:32:58,100	S11:
We do the snow removal.

00:32:59,467	S13:
Uh, the in and the out of the.

00:33:01,801	S11:
The.

00:33:02,367	S4:
Jobs.

00:33:02,667	S1:
Because.

00:33:02,868	S13:
We were behind them. So we make sure that the road in and out is clear. We make sure the park, our, our law is clear and we make sure that there's parking where we need to near the trailer.

00:33:12,601	S1:
What about temporary heat, knowing that.

00:33:15,267	S13:
It's all part of them.

00:33:16,200	S1:
Even though it's extended?

00:33:17,868	S13:
Um, yeah. I mean, I think it was always going to be in the winter. Okay. That was when the original contract mark was. So I don't see it any different, to be honest, than last winter, actually. They benefited because they were still connected to our gas. So they we were able to work with them to, to, you know, the limited amount of heat they needed. Uh, when they begun, they, uh, they did take advantage of us being a, you know, um, hooked up to the natural gas.

00:33:46,267	S8:
So.

00:33:46,868	S1:
Um, anything keep you up at night, left for the project or, uh, what keeps you up at night?

00:33:53,100	S13:
You know, I just I want it to be successful. And, uh, there's a lot of different levels in the project like that, I've learned working with the architect and the contractor, and I'm in the middle of it all. So there's, uh, you know, the things that I want to make, uh, you know, a decision tomorrow or yesterday, if you want to call it that. And I want to work through the levels in the the back and forth with the and go through the correct process for, for being a, uh, you know, this type of, uh, municipal project. So, um, there's, there's a learning curve in that, but there's also some time and patience as well. So. Okay.

00:34:33,167	S9:
And then you said there's some items after they move in the outside landscape. Are you paving before or after what. What's left once you're buttoned up to move in.

00:34:42,067	S13:
Uh, outside. Uh, restoration planting. Uh, probably fence fences, uh, shrubs, uh, curbing, uh, paving, um.

00:34:52,667	S9:
Street appeal.

00:34:53,400	S13:
Just. Yeah, just, uh, you know, the the final restoration that has to be done in the spring. with favorable weather. So. Well, good. You know, and I think maybe the final painting on the building, um, maybe some masonry, small masonry work, um, left, but, um, things that are a temperature.

00:35:10,300	S9:
Um, spring helps.

00:35:11,467	S8:
Yeah.

00:35:12,601	S13:
Sensitive. So. But yeah, I think I think it's if you guys, like I always say, if you guys want to come and take a look at where we're at, um, you know, pictures are okay, but come around and you can see how it's kind of shaping up.

00:35:25,267	S7:
So I love.

00:35:26,200	S9:
That. Sounds good.

00:35:27,167	S13:
Yeah. Just let me know. And usually after three is preferred because they're all cleared out and the building is open and not having to work around people.

00:35:35,367	S7:
Yeah appreciate that.

00:35:39,167	S4:
You want to get to the other thing water rates.

00:35:40,801	S7:
All right.

00:35:43,100	S13:
It's exciting. Uh, so uh, and I've used this spreadsheet in the past.

00:35:47,968	S9:
Do you need this?

00:35:49,100	S13:
Um, I'm pretty good with with what I put there. Uh, I give you four options. Uh, the first column, uh, to the left of the blue column. Uh, copy the current, the current rates as it stands today. So what you'll see as you go down, further down, you'll see that we are very close. Um, in the red is is a deficit. Um, so we are very and a lot of my, um, quarterly commitments are estimates. Uh, they're just projections. Uh, so we're very close on the fiscal 27, uh, budget with using the same rates, uh, fees and structure that we currently have. Um, so what I, what I did is I put four different alternatives together, um, similar to what I've done in the past. And this basically just gives you, um, something to kind of look at, uh, to evaluate and, you know, where are we looking to go with, um, you know, covering the debt, uh, the expenses. Are we looking to increase, the revenue to again look to fund some current or future projects without having to borrow. Um, so looking at you can kind of see what the surplus will be as you work across those options. Those options are defined on the right side. Uh, you can kind of, um, all the way over to the other side. Um, you can see, you know, option one is a $40 infrastructure fee with the 30 to 30% rate increase, uh, per quarter. So that is, you know, I just I ran four different scenarios. Uh, not, you know, many scenarios can be, um, created. Uh, but it's all kind of depending on how much, if any, revenue we want to see after, um, the expenses are covered. Uh, to gear up for other capital projects in water. Um, you know, throughout the town, uh, treatment and distribution. That is kind of what we're seeing now is, you know, back three years ago, I think it was in 2023 that we raised the rates last time. You know, we looked to create some surplus for some improvements. Um, costs have just skyrocketed. We're not able to build enough, uh, as quickly as originally thought and to cover some significant projects. So we're having to wait several years before we can even scratch the surface of, of, uh, you know, a phased, uh, water system improvement project. Um, so I think our rates have to, um, kind of look at you have to look at that as, as the market itself is, is probably 40% more than it was two years ago. Um, you know, a $2 million project is probably a $3 million project now. Um, and our just our rates weren't able to keep up with the cost inflation. So that's kind of what those four are just to kind of look at the impacts of raising rates, raising infrastructure and how much and then what the surplus would be or could be, um, projected out. Um, you know, based on those changes.

00:39:04,567	S1:
What was our last rate increase?

00:39:06,567	S13:
It was a 2023. Um, I think it was, uh, from I think it was 2020 was previously in 2023. So it's been every few years.

00:39:16,267	S7:
Um, you know how much.

00:39:18,267	S4:
It.

00:39:18,367	S13:
Was like the first one was I think the first tier was 4 or 20, uh, $4.20, and then it went up to $6. Okay. Um.

00:39:28,400	S2:
Do you have a sense of how our rates, um, correlate with other towns, like one of them, Ipswich, like the surrounding towns? Do you have a sense of where we are in comparison?

00:39:36,167	S13:
So I think we're competitive. I think it's hard to really look at that. Um, you know, because because some, some towns, um, they'll do infrastructure, they won't do infrastructure. They'll hold it all in the rates they run off instead of gallons. More per thousand, gallons to run off, cubic feet per second, or some other volumetric volume calculation. Um, I feel like, you know, in the communities that I've lived in were very, um, competitive with the water. Um, we don't have sewer here. Um, so, you know, communities have both. You'd have to break out the difference. Um, but I feel like a normal. And that's what those options are. That that it's center screen. Now that I what I did is I basically broke down a 14,000 gallon bill and say that's average. What is what does it look like with option one, two, three and four? Um, and to see what the difference is per quarter and for the year. Um, so I try to give like a forecast as well as, uh, you know, an impact, um, per quarter for the full year based on the four different options.

00:40:39,200	S7:
If you look at the the rate structures in that first 0 to 5000 gallon you cents usage and the next bracket 5000 to 25,000. Do you have a sense of how much of our revenue is coming from the first bracket versus the second bracket?

00:40:57,167	S13:
I can I do have a way to calculate that. I don't have that tonight. But I would say we're, you know, a good portion, 80, 85% of the communities in one of those two. Yeah. Okay. So that's where you're a lot of the you know, as there are larger users, they pay a lot more. You know, as you walk up the tiers, you know, there could be a few outliers. You know.

00:41:21,100	S7:
How like percentage wise, how many of the community are kind of in that under 5000 gallons. Um, is it like half of the community or less than half?

00:41:30,968	S13:
I mean, it would be, you know, families are not. 5000 is not a lot of water for three months. Yeah. You know, I mean, you know, a couple or maybe a single person. Yeah. Families are, you know, usually within that second tier. That's why I use the 14,000.

00:41:47,868	S9:
Yeah. I was going to say you said the average.

00:41:49,767	S13:
On an average, uh, household. Okay.

00:41:52,501	S9:
Um, have you thought about holding flat at the lower numbers to try to encourage people to conserve water and then really lifting the the higher guarantees?

00:42:01,367	S7:
It feels like that. That's why I'm asking those questions around the bracket, probably especially our low bracket.

00:42:05,467	S1:
Because the less water is used, the more we have to.

00:42:07,467	S9:
Charge. I don't know that that's okay.

00:42:09,100	S4:
So there's a there's a couple different things.

00:42:10,667	S7:
First, not the number. I mean like the.

00:42:12,367	S9:
This.

00:42:12,868	S7:
No, no, I mean this like 0 to 5000 like 5000 is too small of a number. Yeah. If our average is that you.

00:42:19,067	S9:
Got 14 then.

00:42:20,300	S7:
Yeah.

00:42:20,667	S9:
If he broke the tiers.

00:42:21,667	S4:
But yeah. But if you, if you do so if you convince the people that are the 14 to use less or less water, then you have to charge them more per gallon to get the same amount of money. You have a you have a fixed cost system here.

00:42:33,667	S1:
In a way, we don't pay for it.

00:42:35,100	S9:
You can have a you can have an escalator going up to the higher tiers. I'd have to know how many are in each volume, but you could create a formula that just drives you make less on the early and then more on the you play a higher rate.

00:42:45,567	S13:
You use it, I think option two or 3 or 4 I did.

00:42:50,767	S9:
It looks like you were playing around with. I didn't have to have some logic.

00:42:53,501	S13:
There's a there's one option that I actually increased as you went up in the higher tiers. They actually got a higher percentage of yellow.

00:43:00,501	S7:
Let me ask another question.

00:43:02,367	S9:
Well look like the the blue is $30 on my.

00:43:05,367	S7:
When you mentioned our our costs like you know for our system costs are going up. Is that for system expansion costs mostly system upgrades or for maintenance like and like how is that breaking down?

00:43:18,767	S13:
So not expansion. We haven't really expanded much. Right. It's more updating. Um, it's um.

00:43:27,801	S7:
Um, replacing old.

00:43:29,200	S13:
Mining, old, um, 1940s water pipe. Um.

00:43:34,267	S7:
19 is it mostly that kind of stuff that's like really driving the cost is the replacement of systems like.

00:43:40,400	S13:
Yeah, I mean, the I mean, we're not the only one. This whole water infrastructure. Sewer infrastructure, just the work itself is just a lot of money. That materials, uh, the equipment. Um, right. Everything is just.

00:43:56,801	S7:
So the reason I'm asking that question is if it's if it was a kind of like ongoing maintenance that is tied to actual usage of water like filter replacements, because the more we use, the faster we need to replace filters. Right? So we would be if we're changing our rate structure because we have a limited water supply or we're trying to affect our opex costs, like then you know, having these like more complex tiers would be to our benefit if most of our costs are tied up in we need to replace aged lines that are at the end of their useful life. And that's the thing that's going up by 40% every couple of years, and that work has to be done anyway. I'm kind of like just trying to get to the point of, okay, we just kind of actually everybody's rates have to go up so we can cover those costs.

00:44:38,267	S13:
Yeah, it's a system wide, um, improvements. I mean, I'm looking at in the, you know, the next right now, I'm having a study done of our water tank. Um, you know, because it's from 1940s, it's underground. It's four separate cells. It's it's I get it, you know, inspected and cleaned every year. Uh, so I have a good idea of the condition. It's just it's. When is it time, right? So when, you know, how long are you going to go with an underground storage tank? Yeah. Um, that's from the 19 1943 or whatever it was. Um, so.

00:45:12,567	S4:
Plan for it, and it's going to be. That'll be like a $10 million project. Yeah.

00:45:16,000	S9:
Well, yeah.

00:45:16,367	S7:
So you're not getting.

00:45:17,667	S1:
That kind of cover off.

00:45:19,367	S13:
So water is, is I mean, in all system utility systems, it's very expensive. Yeah. To, to maintain, to fix, uh, to replace.

00:45:28,467	S9:
And do we have numbers in our five year plan on water, some of those bigger things that are identified in the next and roughly how many tens of millions.

00:45:36,667	S4:
Of time every month with the No shore Water task force. I'm trying to get out of spending that money.

00:45:40,801	S9:
Yeah, but that's a ten plus million dollar member. I would imagine so.

00:45:44,667	S13:
Yeah. I mean, it's it's I have some. Well, I'll have a better idea, uh, because I'm having it study, uh, and then coming up with a conceptual estimate and conceptual design, uh, for everybody to kind of discuss and to, you know, uh, plan for awesome.

00:46:00,167	S9:
And just remind me again of the big jumps, you know, kind of on your point, Ben. It's like contract services operating capital and indirect cost. Those are the big jumps from 26 to 7, right?

00:46:12,100	S13:
What was so, uh, there's some jumps in there because of the gassy treatment, um, that we have now.

00:46:18,868	S9:
Uh, and is that a every couple year thing?

00:46:20,601	S13:
Did you say the gas exchanges every year. Every year? Um, we're able to benefit this year, this coming year, uh, using our old media that we had.

00:46:30,200	S7:
Got some like, refurbished.

00:46:31,267	S13:
Uh, it gets refurbished and then. So there would be less. But then, uh, every fifth year you're going to have new virgin material coming in.

00:46:37,868	S9:
And that's a bigger jump every fifth.

00:46:39,868	S13:
It'll be a bigger jump. Okay, so we've tied that into the operating budget just because it needs to have maintenance. Um, as well as our meters and hydrants that we used to carry in our operating or in our capital. Excuse me. Now we're putting them into our operating budget just because it's a yearly expense for meters and and hydrogen replacements and things like that. So um, the indirect um, you know, that's all salary, a lot of salaries and just people that are uh, and there's a big I'm sure Wendy can describe that much better than I did.

00:47:09,367	S9:
Yeah. She went over.

00:47:10,367	S13:
To. Yeah. There's, there's it's just all kind of full, you know, um, everything's coming forward and increasing, so.

00:47:19,000	S7:
Gotcha.

00:47:20,868	S1:
So explain to me that the, uh, the retained earnings budget is 327, then the operating capital is 327. Is that the same?

00:47:28,167	S13:
327 so the return we're going to use the retained earnings, uh, to pay, uh, to fund the Capitol this year in water. Okay. Um, there is an operating capital a bit. Uh, so it's actually. And when I talked about this and she brought it to my attention to me that numbers should not be 327, should be 280,000 that meets our capital. Uh, and the, the gray line, which is operating capital, um, should be 47 because that's in our it's an operating capital versus our new capital that we have planned for, uh, two different articles. Mm.

00:48:06,968	S7:
I think.

00:48:07,901	S4:
Wendy's on if you have questions.

00:48:09,467	S1:
On how much money is in there is in a water fund like surplus right now.

00:48:15,167	S13:
Wendy. We'll have to answer that.

00:48:16,767	S7:
So I think I can go ahead.

00:48:19,667	S14:
Give me a second. I'll look it right up. Hold on one second.

00:48:22,167	S9:
And these rate increases these boxes to the right. Would they move to retained earnings after each year, or is there a different reserve bucket that you're suggesting.

00:48:31,167	S4:
No. It's same retained earnings. And you know remember a couple of years ago when we made the increase, you made the increase partly to build retained earnings so that we wouldn't have to borrow to do future projects. However, you do still have annual, you know, capital projects that we've been hasn't been able to grow as much as you wanted to. And at the same time, some of those road projects to replace pipe and roads have gotten more expensive. So when we originally did it, we thought, well, after three years, you'll have about $1 million and you might be able to do a project at 4 or 5 streets. Well, now that project costs $2 million to do so, I'd have to take six years at the same rate to get there so.

00:49:05,000	S7:
That.

00:49:05,367	S14:
The retained earnings was certified on October 28th at 1,987,856.

00:49:12,467	S11:
Okay.

00:49:14,667	S1:
So it's not voting tonight, but so but so the yeah, I mean Tim did sort of the same thing last year. Like hey he's Tim to help Tim out. The goal is to build up cash reserve as quick as we can so we can deal with problem in the future. Otherwise, if we only raise like $100,000 this year, $100,000 next year, and now we need a million. That was not going to raise 800,000. But if we do. 327 three 2327 it sort of spreads out the. So it's a big jump this year, but then it but then it sort of spreads it out over three years rather than sort of escalating it. So that's that's the ask of two.

00:49:47,167	S7:
Yeah. And I think the it's the large capital projects like, you know, replacing underground storage tanks like those are going to be different than this. This is really just about like kind of like the general.

00:49:59,400	S4:
Right.

00:49:59,667	S7:
We smaller upgrades that we're making.

00:50:01,567	S13:
So the the idea is to create enough, uh, surplus, um, to maybe put some away for those larger projects.

00:50:11,167	S1:
Yeah. This is for the pay for the larger projects. This is build a bank account. Yeah.

00:50:14,267	S13:
To build up the retained earnings, enable us to do and fund those projects. So not having to borrow.

00:50:20,367	S7:
Yeah I think like, you know when I think we've got a where my head is going with this is if you've got, you know to elderly folks like, you know, our seniors living in a house and they're using, you know, 3 or 4000 gallons a quarter or something like that. Um, and they're on fixed incomes then doing what we can to help, like, really be a little bit more granular almost in these categories because there's like, we catch a lot of people, I guess probably in that 5000 to 25,000. That's the majority of. And if that's ends up being, you know, families, you know, single or dual income maybe. Yeah.

00:51:02,000	S13:
The way that you say I use 14,000, so that's 5000 out of the 14 is in the first tier. Yeah. So they're getting charged to $6. Right now it's $6 for a thousand gallons out here.

00:51:14,868	S7:
Because I kind of like how these like the there's a and when.

00:51:18,200	S14:
I lost audio on zoom.

00:51:21,067	S1:
You guys can hear us.

00:51:22,067	S7:
Oh sorry.

00:51:25,667	S4:
Sorry about.

00:51:26,067	S7:
That. Sorry about that. Then on the, you know, on that next bracket up, you know, once you get up above 25,000 gallons, you know, that's where, you know, I don't know what percentage of the pie those are. So this is where I just I want more data. I guess like.

00:51:41,167	S9:
It'd be good to get like, the number of households within the buckets or. I don't know how our revenue comes in.

00:51:47,868	S13:
Yeah.

00:51:48,367	S9:
Um, you know what I mean? Like, just to see.

00:51:51,000	S13:
See, I mean, I'm limited on some of the software, but I might be able to kind of generate something, um.

00:51:58,567	S9:
Because somehow you had to, like, apply numbers to your new rate increases, right? To get to your.

00:52:03,901	S4:
Well, take a meter.

00:52:05,000	S13:
I used I use fiscal 25 numbers. Okay. So you run any kind of a well I wouldn't get into it.

00:52:10,868	S1:
I mean, it's easy cuz you just. But if you did 50% across the board. So it's not like you had to figure out which tier made more money. He just put 30 or 50% across the line.

00:52:17,701	S7:
Option three he does.

00:52:18,567	S1:
Yeah Lowe's the one where he he has to do a little more guessing on how he's going to make money versus the tiered, because you had to guess what your percentage of the 20% versus 10%.

00:52:28,300	S13:
So yeah. So I just applied those percentages across different tiers within the system and ran a scenario with the fiscal 25 consumption.

00:52:37,667	S7:
I guess.

00:52:38,000	S13:
Like generates uh, estimated commitments. Uh, quarterly commitments.

00:52:42,467	S7:
Right. So you have like 30% increase, you've got a 20% increase and a 15% increase. Those are just flat. Oops. Sorry. Yep. Flat increases across all five tiers.

00:52:52,100	S9:
Tiers. Right.

00:52:52,901	S7:
So. And then the gold one. Option three is where you're really you're starting to kind of break it up a little bit more. But the difference between like option one at a flat 30% increase right now that's you at 650,000 surplus versus the other three options are all at that targeted $300,000

00:53:14,267	S7:
surplus. So is that our target? Is it 300. Or is.

00:53:17,167	S13:
It.

00:53:17,868	S7:
Is it 650?

00:53:19,467	S13:
How much we want to target because I can, I can then if.

00:53:23,167	S4:
We want direction from you, what do you want it to target?

00:53:25,267	S13:
And then we can kind of generate into that number.

00:53:28,067	S7:
So then if we have a list of upcoming capital projects that we're trying to save for, if we think that over the next ten years it's, you know, and then we got to escalate it properly, right? Based on everything that's going on with labor and materials out there.

00:53:42,100	S4:
And we also want to time some of this, we won't be able to do everything within the water rate, so some of it will want to do new debt. We took the town, borrowed $10 million against the Water Enterprise Fund right before I got here, about eight years ago now and nine years ago. So some of that debt should start to roll off soon, because I think we only did for 10 or 15 years. Wendy, the borrowing.

00:54:05,000	S14:
For. Yeah, I can I can look into it and have it prepared next time if you'd like.

00:54:08,767	S4:
So we'd want a time like the bigger things, like the water tank, you know, we'd like to pay a portion of it out of what we've retained got and retained earnings and then use some of the debts rolling off and and reapply the debt and get it.

00:54:20,267	S1:
Getting debt service a third of our water.

00:54:22,501	S4:
But we don't want it to be much. We don't know that.

00:54:24,167	S1:
We don't do. Which is why we're trying to.

00:54:25,667	S9:
It's currently a third.

00:54:26,667	S1:
Yeah. It's currently. We're trying to raise the. Yeah. So I try to raise the rate to build that. Kitties. We don't have to be borrowing so much.

00:54:33,100	S9:
But so why what's magical about a third.

00:54:36,267	S1:
That's what it is right now.

00:54:37,567	S9:
It's just magic bookkeeping.

00:54:38,567	S4:
I think that it's again, we have to keep in mind that we want to show the bond rating agencies, you know, everything comes out of our bond rating. When we borrow money, we we get a better interest rate on it because we triple a bond rating community. When you extend yourself more than a third of what your income is, then the bond rating agencies don't really like that. You know, they start to look at you and maybe consider dropping your bond rating down. So we want to maintain our good, our good ability to borrow money at a at a cheap rate. And, you know, because that will affect us across the whole town. Right.

00:55:07,868	S9:
Well, just like citizens don't like their rate going up by a third. No. So where's that balance. Right. So to draw like a third, like I don't know if I'd want to lay that out. Like what would it cost for debt, you know, to get the same amount of money you're trying to get through, you know, a 20% or a 30%.

00:55:24,467	S7:
So for me, I'm thinking like, if the right number is if the right surplus is 650. Like, that's what we kind of have to back into what that surplus wants to be.

00:55:33,767	S9:
Where's that number coming from? 650.

00:55:35,667	S1:
The yellow. That's just. What's the.

00:55:36,868	S9:
Last.

00:55:37,267	S7:
30%? Sorry.

00:55:38,267	S9:
Okay. Just on this one. Yeah.

00:55:40,601	S7:
So I'm at what I'm asking is, is the right surplus amount per year? 650. Is it 450? Is it 300? It's like that. We have to start.

00:55:48,267	S1:
We? Last time we did not take the first column. We took the second column.

00:55:51,167	S9:
Yeah, I wouldn't go with the first column.

00:55:53,567	S1:
But now. But now we're. But now we're doing it.

00:55:56,167	S9:
I like your yellow.

00:55:56,968	S7:
Yeah. Nice to put out something big. Like.

00:55:59,100	S5:
I like the yellow column too.

00:56:00,667	S9:
But I'd want to kind of understand the shift to your point and the usage buckets. You know, it.

00:56:06,567	S7:
Was like if, well, if I'd made up a number and said, well, what if we raised rates by 50%, right. It's like, well then 650 would look pretty good. The the question that I'm asking is, is the right amount of surplus? Is it six 5450 or 300. Like to deal with our maintaining our bond rating and to plan for the future, right. So we want to kind of back into the right number, and then we use a strategy like you've done the gold column here.

00:56:29,701	S9:
First of all, no. If you started at 50 that would have been a harder laugh. 30 would not look good. Our goal is here is to minimize the rates and kind of be smart about what we're charging our residents to create a bucket to do jobs in the future. We haven't seen those jobs even yet. So we got to prioritize those jobs when they need them to do the backwards. And you have a hybrid view of debt and what the cost of borrowing is, and then the rates, because I don't I mean, that's a pretty that's a huge jump 30%. I agree with that huge jump.

00:56:56,667	S13:
I know.

00:56:58,300	S1:
We've had lower.

00:57:00,200	S9:
50.

00:57:00,601	S1:
We had low rates. We've had low rates.

00:57:03,100	S9:
I definitely.

00:57:03,667	S1:
Wouldn't, but it's a result of we have we've had low rates historically very low rates. And so we're trying.

00:57:09,000	S9:
So let's look at that. And I'd love to see the rates.

00:57:10,567	S1:
I mean it's a big jump now but only because we've been benefiting from lower rates. So it's sort of that it's sort of that yeah we've been benefiting. Now it's gonna negatively hurt us because we're going to jump up too much. But what I'm hearing, um, Tim, is that if we can look at the first tier and the first tier maybe might represent a 1 or 2 person household with a fixed income and find out what that average rate is. Maybe that's what we base the tier on. So if it's somebody, you know, retired or a single person living in a house, let's look at what that average water usage is for that person. Maybe maybe if that's 6000, maybe that lower rate is 0 to 6000 or something. So if we can if that data is available I think that might be helpful to understand. Yeah. And then we can jump it up from there.

00:57:54,200	S9:
Yeah. It's good thinking.

00:57:55,367	S5:
Joe. I'm sorry. Could could you go back to the to the current race. Could you just sort of scroll sideways so we can so I can just refresh my memory?

00:58:05,968	S1:
Yes. Six. Six. You had six.

00:58:08,801	S9:
I know.

00:58:09,367	S1:
850. That row. Yeah. That one right there. Oh. Oh.

00:58:14,167	S5:
All right.

00:58:14,501	S1:
We're sorry. scroll down a little bit. Yep.

00:58:18,100	S5:
So right now.

00:58:20,367	S1:
Right there. Yep. Six. The white. That white column. Right. The two white columns. Six. Eight. Six. Eight. That's the.

00:58:27,100	S5:
And then the eight 50s is more. The average between 5 and 15 is what you're saying. That's right.

00:58:34,467	S1:
Right. Five and 25.

00:58:35,767	S4:
Yeah. 25.

00:58:36,667	S1:
That's where the majority of the.

00:58:38,367	S5:
Five and 20.

00:58:39,067	S1:
That's where the that's where. That's where the majority of the residents probably pay. Correct.

00:58:42,467	S7:
Yeah. If you've got it right. If you've.

00:58:43,767	S13:
Got 3.

00:58:44,167	S7:
To 4 people in a house, if there's 3 to 4 people in that house, then yes.

00:58:48,167	S11:
Okay.

00:58:49,067	S13:
I think I think I can do this. Um, so so I understand correctly, you want me to run a couple scenarios, maybe even that first tier go up to 14 or whatever the average household.

00:59:01,667	S1:
And not the average household. We gotta look at.

00:59:04,467	S9:
Them the same.

00:59:05,067	S4:
They want to leave the. They want to stay away from the small. You know.

00:59:08,067	S1:
We don't want to run.

00:59:08,901	S4:
1 or 2 potentially older folks on it.

00:59:11,567	S1:
Yeah.

00:59:12,100	S4:
I'm not using as much water.

00:59:13,100	S1:
I don't know when I find that that data, because you have to do a census compared to the public. But you could look at a couple. Maybe we could. I mean, Joe, we got to figure out how we we got to figure out we.

00:59:23,501	S7:
Can make some some of that data.

00:59:25,267	S4:
That won't be able to be cross-referenced against the water rates, though. Okay.

00:59:29,601	S5:
So didn't tell. Water bills just come today.

00:59:33,601	S9:
Yeah, I just looked at it. Yes, I was. I heard it percent.

00:59:38,267	S5:
It was. I'm a two person household. I could just go open my bill and tell you usually.

00:59:45,567	S13:
Right.

00:59:46,567	S5:
Just under 200. And so, you know, what would the difference be.

00:59:52,467	S1:
With the volunteers you might want to give? Yeah. Help us.

00:59:55,300	S4:
You don't have.

00:59:55,801	S1:
Nobody. You don't have.

00:59:56,767	S4:
Anybody that wants to volunteer. Their bill has to share their name.

00:59:59,167	S1:
Thank you. Rosie. You don't have to do it online. We can do it. We can do it in an email to Joe.

01:00:03,100	S4:
We can. Yeah, we can, we can, we can get some.

01:00:06,000	S1:
All right. We got to move on because we all have some things to do tonight. So. But I think it's a good discussion. Good stuff.

01:00:09,601	S9:
Yeah. No it's great stuff.

01:00:10,601	S4:
The goal is to bring this back to you guys. Hopefully have a vote. Um, maybe at the first meeting in March if you're going to adopt new rates, we want them to be able to go into effect after the April meter read, so that that means they wouldn't take effect until your August bill. Okay.

01:00:25,100	S7:
Right. Just to be clear, to say there's so we bottomed out on the how it impacts the smaller, more fixed income households, but also having that number that we want to back into of like whether it's, you know, how much surplus are we trying to generate each year. It's like so we're back into the right number.

01:00:47,801	S4:
And identifying what that number is based on when debt rolls off. And and you know, exactly how much we need to raise in savings to, to.

01:00:55,467	S1:
To balance the project.

01:00:56,601	S7:
Right. Yeah.

01:00:57,567	S13:
All right. So you want me to run some scenarios or just.

01:01:00,400	S4:
I think what we need. I think what we need is we need to identify the major projects and their estimated cost. We need to know when the debt rolls off. And then we need to be able to estimate the difference between the debt that we'd be able to repay, you know, reauthorize and the amount that we estimate in savings to see what the balance is.

01:01:19,801	S13:
But you you want me to hold the tears the way they are? No, no.

01:01:22,767	S1:
I want we need to find out what the load. We need to find out what a water do person household. What is that? What tier that is, and see if we can.

01:01:29,467	S13:
I think you'll find that it's probably over $5,000.

01:01:31,868	S1:
Right. So you probably need to.

01:01:33,267	S13:
So I think you're probably really you're probably okay. But I would say it's probably closer to seven. Okay.

01:01:40,367	S7:
So that's what it means. I kind of like just trying to get that at the right.

01:01:43,767	S4:
Yes, I get it.

01:01:45,868	S1:
All right.

01:01:46,467	S4:
Okay, kids. I'm sorry I can't get away from it anymore.

01:01:50,467	S1:
Joe, Joe's got a list, so I think. Yeah, Joe, he knows what we need to do. Yeah. Um. Thank you. And then just, uh, I got three last questions on on, uh, and we can go around anybody. But in terms of, uh, department reports, one obviously is appreciate the hard work over the last couple of weeks and, you know, snow and ice removal and everything. And that's and is that budget going to be replenished for the end of the year?

01:02:13,300	S4:
No water. There's no snow and ice, but the snow and ice budget is the one budget and our municipal budget that can go into the red. Um, that it hits us in our free cash certification next year. But we're not. But we don't have to appropriate other money now in the middle of the year to try to cover it. It's the one line item that can go red. So it'll go it'll go red. And every five or 6 or 7 years, you have a year where it goes red. And then the rest of the years we're fine. So the last four years in a row, we've been fine with our snow and ice. It doesn't look like that's going to be the case this year.

01:02:43,601	S13:
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna have to. I mean, it is what it is. I mean, that's that's the only budget you can do that.

01:02:49,767	S1:
But you got enough people helping you out and you got.

01:02:51,868	S13:
We had I can say that our, you know, looking and talking to other directors, we did. We were very the guys worked hard and they did a very good job. Um responded. We handled 24 plus inches of snow, um, something that would have gave us a lot of challenge a few years ago, but we are short numbers still and we were able to get some really good contractors that stayed at it. Uh, we've had them for a couple of years now, so they know the roots. They know where things are at. Which was super helpful. Uh, but my guys, I can't say enough about. They they it was 40 plus 40 hours or so they were in. So.

01:03:26,467	S9:
Yeah. That's awesome.

01:03:27,467	S4:
And I want to I want to go a step further. Uh, Tim and, um, the mechanic, Eddie Neal and the folks at town meeting who authorized our capital budget every year, we've made significant improvements in our equipment that is moving the snow at the. And as Tim said a couple of years ago, like the first year I got here, we'd have struggled with that much snow in that amount of time. But the new trucks, the new sanders, um, the new sidewalk equipment is all paid huge dividends for the way the guys were able to get through the storm. And so we appreciate the town's, uh, willingness to step up and fund the items that we asked for in the capital plan.

01:04:02,467	S13:
That's very good. I have a very good assistant, Peter car that can handle snow like a vessel. He does very well. He stays with it. He's. He's very knowledgeable. He looks like a he orchestrates the whole, um, movement.

01:04:16,868	S1:
Okay.

01:04:17,300	S13:
That's good. So I'm very happy to have him, and that's good.

01:04:20,100	S9:
Um, operations.

01:04:21,267	S13:
The guys respect him and understand that he's been there. He's been in the crew. Uh, he's worked his way up so he knows how it all works. And so shout out to him because he did a good job. So thank you a lot of stuff.

01:04:33,567	S9:
Do we do a lot of treatment before storms or more on the tail end with the cleanup.

01:04:37,267	S13:
So we do treat uh, depending on how the storm is shaping, uh, that one that we just had, we didn't treat a lot because we knew we were going to. We're going to waste that, uh, we're going to be plowing before long. So, uh, we I think we ran one pass, uh, just to what you're doing is you're trying to coat the road, so you break the bond up from the snow and the ice. And so we did pre treat, uh, just to eliminate that bond from happening, uh, which I think really helped us. Uh, we've been spraying as well. Um. And I think that coats and activates the salt and creates that barrier between. Uh, so when we do go plow that, it's, uh, it's we're not plowing ice. It's it's it's loose. So we're able to get back down to the pavement. Mhm.

01:05:20,100	S9:
And we plow the schools as well. Or do they use their trucks or a combination thereof.

01:05:24,100	S13:
So we do the, we do the elementary schools uh middle school and high school. They have a contractor that comes in. Um, you know we'll assist if we need to. Yeah. But usually we're strung out in busy too. So. Yeah. Um, but, uh, yeah, they. And everybody is very patient. Uh, thank you for to the community for.

01:05:42,400	S1:
Two snow.

01:05:42,801	S13:
Days.

01:05:43,901	S4:
We only have one. You guys hit two in town in the school district, but the town only took one.

01:05:47,868	S1:
Yeah. Yeah. Um.

01:05:49,801	S9:
What do you think? Delayed that? So was it the sidewalks to get to the schools the second day? Or just the streets in general? It's not.

01:05:55,100	S11:
Street.

01:05:56,000	S1:
Yeah, it's no tow. Like it's. No, it's not until, like 2:00 in the morning.

01:05:58,901	S9:
Yeah. It was. No, I.

01:05:59,801	S7:
Think I.

01:06:00,167	S9:
Think until then it was like another six inches over the next 12 hours.

01:06:04,067	S4:
I didn't I didn't get a chance to talk to Eric about this storm specifically, but I know we've we've chatted in the past and some of his challenges that, you know, not all of his teachers live in the town or even really close to town. Some of his teachers live away and all towns. There was a big spread of how well the roads were cleared across towns. I won't mention other towns that I don't think did as well as Hamilton, but there were there were several that I have to drive through to get here. And I think that, you know, teachers ability to get into school does weigh on the superintendents decision. Like what's yes, he could maybe get the schools open and get kids in there. But if there's nobody at the front of the class to keep order, you know, then why don't we have them there for us?

01:06:40,200	S9:
That was the right call in the right corner.

01:06:41,868	S13:
Yeah. We appreciate them working with us. I have a good rapport with Curtis down there at the facilities director. You know, on the phone with him or texting with him. You guys opening? You guys are. You know what? Because it changes our routine and it changes where we're going to focus.

01:06:54,100	S9:
Focus. That's right.

01:06:55,167	S13:
So that was you know, he was very responsive, um, and kept us, you know, in the loop there. Yeah. He seems.

01:07:00,868	S7:
Great. And thank you very. Please. Thank your team. That was just a huge lift. Thank you.

01:07:06,801	S1:
Uh, last question I had for you was, um, as we're going to have a budget discussion for 2027, and because we're looking at an override, we sort of we looked at the budget and we don't really want to cut staff, but we want to cut money. Right. So one of the things that came up was eliminate positions that haven't been filled and know a lot of those positions happen to end up in the DPW right now. So what would how would it affect you if we I mean, everybody's working hard right now to make up for it, but how would it be to go through a whole nother year by us eliminating positions that you haven't currently filled to save money on the budget?

01:07:39,801	S13:
Uh, you know, we're we're a small staff, so even one minus one is is a lot. We're shifting guys around. We're covering, uh, different departments with different divisions. You know, highway guys will go down and help parts out. And, you know, some days that's. That's fine. Other days it's highways backed up with storm. Um, post winter operations. Uh, we got now Memorial Day to push for, um, so small staff. Um, it'll be an impact. Uh, more so just moving guys around to cover and some things may not get done. Um, but we'll, you know, we stay busy. Um, you know, one of the positions I think we're looking at is, is not necessarily an open position either, so be careful.

01:08:25,667	S4:
Yeah, we gotta be careful about that. So.

01:08:29,367	S13:
Yeah. So it's, uh, it's it's it'll impact us. Um.

01:08:34,767	S14:
I think we took that off the list. Tim.

01:08:36,567	S11:
Oh, okay.

01:08:37,367	S4:
Yeah. That one. That one. We took off the list. We had just a one vote right now. Okay. We have we have a list of things that will go over to the board later when we get into that part of this.

01:08:45,601	S1:
I just want to get his opinion on if we if we come from his department, what will it do? How much pain will you feel?

01:08:51,200	S13:
So guys we'll we'll just have to shift around and cover and it'll be something we'll have to deal with it, obviously, but it's, uh. It's not a.

01:09:02,701	S1:
Deal.

01:09:03,167	S13:
Okay. Um, since we are short to begin with. Okay.

01:09:08,300	S1:
Rosemary or Tom online. Any other questions for, uh, Tim?

01:09:14,501	S5:
I think we gave a pretty good review. Thank you. Thank you Tim.

01:09:18,701	S1:
Good job.

01:09:19,501	S9:
Guys.

01:09:20,868	S1:
Thank you. Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it. Thanks, Tim. Good night. Thanks. We need him any longer. Okay. You can go home and get some sleep.

01:09:27,167	S4:
He's off the hook.

01:09:27,767	S1:
He's off the hotseat. Go home. Get some sleep. There's no tomorrow.

01:09:32,567	S1:
Here. Are you glad that storm went south?

01:09:34,667	S9:
Oh, yeah.

01:09:35,968	S4:
We are.

01:09:36,567	S13:
Yeah. It's actually, uh, we had three inches in Manchester, so I talked to Pete and I said, how are we doing? He said, sunny blue sky. Yeah. So it was a strange storm, but.

01:09:46,100	S4:
It was really strange that I didn't have any swamp sky either.

01:09:47,901	S13:
Do you have anything else?

01:09:48,968	S4:
Not a not not a snowflake.

01:09:50,567	S13:
Got hit pretty hard. Yeah, yeah. And then we just got the tail end. But it snowed all morning. Three inches.

01:09:56,300	S4:
Well. The cape. The cape juts out a little, so maybe that has to do with the wind coming back around. Yeah.

01:10:01,400	S13:
He escaped it here, though. Let the guys sleep. Yeah.

01:10:04,767	S1:
You're welcome.

01:10:05,267	S8:
Thanks, Sam.

01:10:06,601	S1:
All right. Next item on agenda. Approve appointment of Jack Whittier to the Hamilton Environmental Impact Committee. We heard someone speak to that. Let's do the motion. Then we can have the discussion. So I have a do I have a motion to approve? Uh, yeah. We'll have them come up. Let's do the motion that we can have the discussion to have a motion to approve the appointment of Jack Whittier to the Hamilton environment.

01:10:23,400	S9:
And back that we approve the appointment of Jack Whittier to the Hamilton Environmental Impact Committee.

01:10:28,467	S1:
I'll have a second.

01:10:29,400	S7:
Second.

01:10:30,100	S1:
All right. And Jack is here. Come on up and say hello to us, and you can teach us all some. Your resume is pretty aggressive, so thank you for volunteering. Yeah, sure.

01:10:43,901	S1:
Hi. Hi. I give a quick, uh, I could give a quick, uh, uh, what you been doing and why you and how you came to volunteer?

01:10:51,400	S7:
Sure, sure.

01:10:52,000	S9:
Um, a little LinkedIn stuff.

01:10:54,200	S4:
Look at all you guys. Yeah, you and I have some commonality.

01:10:57,267	S7:
I saw that. Yeah, yeah.

01:10:59,067	S9:
Did you know Andy pretty well?

01:11:00,467	S7:
Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No. I'm really. Well. Yeah, yeah, he's a great guy.

01:11:06,100	S1:
Okay.

01:11:06,601	S11:
So different life.

01:11:07,767	S7:
Yeah.

01:11:08,000	S9:
Um, yeah.

01:11:08,767	S4:
No, I, I, I've done, I think where Ben has been, I, I started off in, in energy efficiency and worked for engineering firms and then uh, really my interest was in the supply side. So I did an awful lot of renewables, geothermal, biomass to solar, solar, solar.

01:11:27,000	S13:
And.

01:11:28,167	S4:
Then big projects and small projects and then all around the world. Then it's been a great ride.

01:11:33,000	S1:
It'd be great to have your insight.

01:11:34,167	S7:
So yeah, that's all that. I'm tickled. I saw your resume. It's just real ringer. So, um, I'm sure the committee will be very happy to have you helping them out, and, um.

01:11:48,200	S4:
Sounds great.

01:11:49,000	S7:
Yeah.

01:11:50,267	S1:
It was Mary or Tom. Any other questions for a no.

01:11:55,767	S5:
Certainly impressive resume. So that would definitely be an asset.

01:12:01,267	S4:
Yeah, just a great time.

01:12:03,567	S1:
And you're retired. So you got lots of time.

01:12:06,000	S4:
Yeah.

01:12:06,267	S9:
Congratulations.

01:12:07,367	S7:
Yeah.

01:12:08,267	S1:
And anybody else, uh, public comment. Anybody else have any questions? Comments? I know we already heard from, uh, from some of your fellow future committee members. All right, so.

01:12:18,767	S7:
How long have you been in town?

01:12:20,667	S4:
Uh, since 2014.

01:12:22,367	S7:
All right.

01:12:23,000	S4:
Yeah, it's sort of.

01:12:24,167	S7:
I don't.

01:12:24,467	S4:
Know. My family's been here forever.

01:12:26,200	S7:
All right. Yeah. Okay.

01:12:28,801	S1:
All right, well, I'm ready to vote. Anybody else about ready to vote? I'm ready. All right. Well, call, uh, Rosemary.

01:12:35,000	S5:
Rosie Kennedy, I Tom.

01:12:37,868	S2:
Uh, Myers, I.

01:12:39,100	S9:
Bill Wilson, bill Wilson, I.

01:12:41,267	S7:
Ben.

01:12:42,267	S1:
Olsen, I yeah. Thank you. Five. Five. Very excited.

01:12:45,567	S9:
Uh, yeah.

01:12:47,200	S1:
Uh, uh, board members at your, uh, joining our our community and helping us out. Yeah, in the future. And helping this other group out as well too.

01:12:55,701	S4:
So yeah. Yeah. Look forward to working with you guys.

01:12:57,968	S1:
Uh, we need one more. So bring somebody else on board.

01:13:01,400	S7:
Do some recruiting.

01:13:03,501	S1:
Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

01:13:05,868	S4:
Uh, the next one. I don't think the, uh, the appointee is here, but it's a reappointment, and, um, Tom might be able to speak to this. It seems like our wires got crossed when, uh, this reappointment came up back in the spring. He wasn't aware that we were trying to reach him. And then he recently reached out and wanted to ensure that his reappointment was done. Russell Camp's been on the back of Woodland Management committee for a while. Um, so we added it here if you wanted to consider it.

01:13:32,000	S1:
So he. This is with his. This is with his approval? Yes. Okay.

01:13:36,601	S4:
He reached. He finally reached out to us and said, hey, I think I was supposed to be reappointed.

01:13:40,767	S1:
All right. So do I have a motion to reappoint Russell Camp for the Tobacco Woods land management committee for Hamilton?

01:13:47,968	S5:
So moved.

01:13:48,901	S1:
Do I have a second?

01:13:50,067	S7:
Second.

01:13:51,167	S1:
Any further discussion? I mean, Joe. I mean.

01:13:55,467	S7:
You know, I was familiar with this.

01:13:56,868	S1:
I'm not familiar with him or this committee.

01:13:58,267	S4:
But they, they they annually they they, they work together with a group of committee members from Manchester and they, um, they put out materials about the trails between the tobacco woods, trails and, uh, annually they organize a cleanup of the trails and they'll go out and do that. And this it's about $2,500. We in Hamilton and we in Manchester like switch off who has it in their budget each year. And it's not a it's not a committee that's overly active. Did not expanding the trails or anything like that. It's just kind of trail maintenance and making sure that people know that, you know, the trail is blazed and such. And um.

01:14:30,868	S7:
And this would that.

01:14:32,901	S4:
Keep us from having to put another, another opening on our list of openings? So, yeah.

01:14:38,501	S7:
Keep our meetings that much short of the, uh, and there's no impact with the new, that new land that's going on that'll be managed by the trustees. So this is separate. Okay. Separate. Okay. All right.

01:14:48,868	S1:
Roll call.

01:14:49,167	S7:
Vote.

01:14:49,868	S1:
Rosemary.

01:14:51,501	S5:
Rosie. Kennedy I.

01:14:52,701	S6:
Tom.

01:14:54,267	S2:
Tom Meyers I.

01:14:55,567	S9:
Bill. Bill. Wilson I.

01:14:57,767	S7:
Bengals.

01:14:58,267	S1:
I I boy. Molson I thank you Russell. All right. Next item on the agenda is a approval of a license for a small wireless facility and right of way adjacent to 15 Walnut. So the planning board, um, has approved this, and they need us to sign.

01:15:17,167	S4:
To vote on and vote on, to accept and sign the, uh, license agreement. Mark Connors, our planning and land use director, is on the line, as is Mr. Ed Pear. Or is that pear or pear?

01:15:30,868	S2:
Where?

01:15:31,167	S9:
It's great.

01:15:33,100	S2:
Hey, thanks.

01:15:33,667	S4:
Thanks. Thanks, Pat. Um, they're here to answer any questions you have, but, um. Yeah.

01:15:38,868	S1:
This is. Can we have a quick, uh, second can we have a quick summary of the project, what it looks like.

01:15:45,467	S13:
What it does.

01:15:46,167	S2:
So this is a bit of formality.

01:15:48,400	S15:
This is a planning board application that was approved by the Planning Board late last year. This is for a small wireless facility. So it's a AT&T is the provider. And they're looking to fill a gap in wireless telecommunication service in the town center area of Hamilton. Um, this is a provision in our bylaw that allows cell phone providers or others to have facilities on utility poles. So it's a little bit it provides a way to improve wireless service, but a little bit less obtrusive than a major pole. So AT&T is looking to take advantage of that. This is a pole that's existing in Hamilton. This has been through the public hearing process. So the buyers have been notified. It was approved unanimously by the planning Board. So the zoning by just requires the town to sign off on the licensing agreement. So this is an agreement that allows AT&T to go within the right of way in order to put the facility on the pole and to maintain it. And they also pay a fee to the town to do that annually.

01:16:57,801	S1:
That was my question. Yeah, though. How's the finances work on it? We actually get.

01:17:01,000	S9:
Paid. Yeah, like 200 bucks a year though.

01:17:02,801	S1:
And then is this a perpetuity or is there a limit on it?

01:17:06,868	S15:
They have to update it every year. So.

01:17:10,067	S1:
Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. So there's only.

01:17:12,667	S9:
So like the, the pole there or is it a new pole. Is it a taller pole or is it a simple existing pole. Same height. They're not going up.

01:17:20,067	S15:
So it's an existing pole. But it will be replaced with this.

01:17:22,000	S2:
It'll be replacement.

01:17:22,801	S9:
Pole. Is it a taller pole that's coming in or is it. It is. How much taller is the pole? Uh.

01:17:31,067	S15:
About five.

01:17:31,868	S2:
Feet. 6.5ft, I believe.

01:17:35,167	S7:
It's gonna be like 38ft tall or something like that. I think I saw.

01:17:41,567	S9:
Yes it is. This is like when we talked about the fixed wireless network. This is kind of like what you don't want typically to happen. Everyone come in on their own. Then you've got multiple polls and or just new objects hanging. I know where hopefully I have a tower coming in a hundred yards from here, which will totally blanket that area. You usually like to control, you know, things like this. But, you know, I would hate to discourage better coverage for all the carriers downtown.

01:18:08,267	S1:
Well, that's my question. Is this one of many like is ever going to come next month? Another one or.

01:18:12,767	S4:
So? I think I think the thing is AT&T was looking to use this approach. We know that there's another carrier. Verizon is um Marc Marc spoke with the the pole developer last week as did I. I think they'll be in with their application for the pole behind the public safety building, uh, in the next week or so. Their goal is to get on the planning boards agenda for the second planning board hearing this month. I'm planning the board meeting this month. Um, And February 20th. Mark, is that right?

01:18:43,367	S15:
They missed that deadline. So it'll be sometime in March.

01:18:45,968	S4:
Early March. Um, so the application should be coming along here in the next week or so. They finally get all their ducks in a row and start that process. I would you know, that's similar to the poll behind Town Hall. Uh, the carriers can go on that poll. That's ideal. So once this once this poll goes up, we would try to direct people.

01:19:04,000	S1:
Maybe this goes.

01:19:04,567	S4:
Away to go somewhere else. But it's not necessarily a reason to deny AT&T right now because they could be, you know, in the ground and improving service for their customers in a much quicker time frame. The polls still got once. Once the poll goes through the permitting process, it's still going to take a period of time to to construct and get online. So this could be an immediate improvement, at least for the AT&T customers in the center.

01:19:29,167	S1:
And so the $270 like who negotiated that is that standard fee.

01:19:33,567	S9:
That's a license. That's a license.

01:19:35,167	S4:
It's just.

01:19:35,400	S9:
A license. Like when you go When we put people on a pole behind them, you're getting a lot of money. But like, so this like, I don't know if there's a.

01:19:43,467	S1:
Bell, but what was the number 270 come.

01:19:45,901	S9:
From. Yeah. Where does that come from?

01:19:46,901	S2:
Is it.

01:19:48,367	S4:
It's in the zoning.

01:19:49,767	S9:
What is that? Well, how does that language read? It's flat fee. It's a cost per foot.

01:19:53,567	S15:
Or I believe it's per facility. So this is just for one facility. So it's an annual fee.

01:20:01,167	S2:
Okay. Correct. And that's in accordance with the.

01:20:04,767	S9:
That's right.

01:20:05,868	S1:
Is that sorry. Oh.

01:20:07,767	S6:
Okay.

01:20:08,367	S2:
Yeah. The 270 is also a reference to the FCC regulations. Is a reasonable fee for the public right of way.

01:20:14,367	S9:
To 70s with the FCC.

01:20:16,467	S2:
To 270. Correct.

01:20:17,901	S9:
Okay.

01:20:20,667	S1:
But I guess so.

01:20:21,701	S9:
To answer your question, though, I don't know that I know you have to redo the fee every year, but is there a term on this pole? Like, is it a ten year, 15 year or just every year it's looked at? I'm sure there's a period Correct?

01:20:36,567	S5:
I didn't see any. And when I was reading over.

01:20:40,267	S4:
This is a one year license. And so it would answer the question whether they'd want to add there they have a term that they want to get out of it.

01:20:48,300	S15:
Okay. It's for the life of the facility. So if they abandon the facility, they'll have to take it down there, probably because they not have to continue paying the town. But as long as the facility is there.

01:20:59,501	S9:
I'm still not clear. Like what?

01:21:01,868	S1:
It's in.

01:21:02,167	S9:
Perpetuity.

01:21:02,901	S1:
Sounds like.

01:21:03,701	S9:
Yeah. I mean, for the life of the facility is what I heard, which is surprising.

01:21:11,767	S9:
Doesn't lose the term period or.

01:21:16,267	S5:
So the term is a year. Is that what you're saying, Joe? And we would renew it every year.

01:21:20,868	S1:
It says a license will be revoked by either party, with or without cause, upon written notice at least three days prior to the termination date said within said notice. So I mean, we it sounds like we have some outs.

01:21:32,100	S4:
Yeah. You've got opportunity broke. Town council reviewed the license agreement. Correct?

01:21:39,601	S15:
Yes.

01:21:40,267	S4:
That's what I thought.

01:21:41,167	S1:
So

01:21:43,501	S1:
I guess my comment is kind of somewhat of Bill's, like, I hate to limit improvement of cell phones, which is already bad, but in the future I think we need to be part of. I know we don't. If we're going to vote on this thing, I think we need to be invited and have a joint meeting with the planning board when they're going through this thing, so that we know what we're voting on.

01:22:03,767	S7:
Just clarify that, you know, they're they're putting in a system that I'm imagining has a useful life of at least five plus years.

01:22:13,701	S2:
Definitely. Yeah.

01:22:15,100	S7:
Okay. So like, it's like a ten year facility or a 15 year facility, right. So but my understanding this, right, that the way that this contract is written is it's a year to year and we can revoke it.

01:22:28,667	S4:
It's a, it's a, it's a town requirement for them to, uh, To have the license. It's renewable annually so.

01:22:36,100	S7:
We can terminate it without cause.

01:22:39,467	S9:
Three days before whatever time we approve it. And I don't want to come. We don't want to come across like we're anti this because we're very much pro, you know, better coverage within the downtown. We're just trying to be strategic about it. We know we're going to have a what 150 foot pole potentially, you know in the future that.

01:22:56,000	S1:
We're not that far away.

01:22:57,601	S9:
At downtown. And if you get.

01:22:58,968	S1:
Over 80, you'll be on.

01:23:00,100	S9:
All 3 or 4 carriers on there. However, there are at that time.

01:23:03,000	S1:
That we get rid.

01:23:03,567	S9:
Of this thing. The town's going to have a revenue stream.

01:23:05,400	S1:
Yeah. To get rid of this thing, put it on the other pole and they're going to revoke your license because you're gonna be on that pole. So I'm in favor of this one. But I think moving forward, we got to see it'd be good to see if like, it's a good see if it works. Yep. Get good feedback.

01:23:16,167	S9:
Are there other ones like it downtown? Do any carriers?

01:23:18,868	S4:
Not that I.

01:23:19,267	S1:
Know.

01:23:19,400	S4:
I'm not coming to apply since I've been here.

01:23:22,000	S7:
If this is so.

01:23:22,667	S15:
There's not any in Hamilton. There's 1 in 1 of them.

01:23:25,667	S7:
Just play this forward. It's sort of like if it works and it works well, you know, and then it's just sort of like, oh, well, that was fast and easy or whatever, right? It's like then it's like, let's just go do 20 of these. Like, why wait for the big time?

01:23:38,567	S9:
Well, you'd do each carry. You would do their own. You'd only need one. It's a small coverage area versus.

01:23:42,901	S1:
Like it's.

01:23:43,367	S4:
Not.

01:23:44,200	S7:
You can just only get like.

01:23:45,567	S1:
Only.

01:23:45,767	S9:
18. Yeah. You're going to cover the train. It's probably a big reason why they want to be there. It's for the train and the commuter rail and.

01:23:51,467	S7:
Stuff and the grocery.

01:23:52,267	S2:
Store. These are incredibly low power. So the antenna itself sits on the top of the pole. It's 24. It's 24in tall. So it's you know, we get maybe a quarter mile, a third of a mile of coverage. Uh, you know, unlike a cell tower where we'd get a could get a mile and a half or two miles.

01:24:09,801	S4:
So this location is not even really going to reach across Bay road to the actual, more densely part of densely inhabited within a quarter mile.

01:24:18,901	S9:
Yeah.

01:24:19,667	S7:
It'll almost.

01:24:20,400	S2:
Like it. It may. Once we get online, we'll have a better sense of it.

01:24:25,100	S7:
Okay. They might be able to get all the way to the library with that.

01:24:27,901	S1:
And which planet do we have a map? Which just which pole is it?

01:24:30,767	S9:
Is it?

01:24:31,868	S1:
Is it literally.

01:24:32,501	S9:
On.

01:24:33,868	S1:
Walnut Street?

01:24:34,667	S4:
Yeah. So it's adjacent. It's adjacent to the the 15 Walnut restaurant.

01:24:38,868	S1:
And how did just that curiosity, how was that position picked? Because that was an was that what was wanted or was that negotiated?

01:24:44,901	S15:
That's what it was kind of negotiated. So they came in originally with the pole further down the road goes through some residential properties. The butter didn't like that. So AT&T agreed to look at other options. H came up with this option. No, no one had any objection to the public hearing.

01:25:00,667	S16:
My concern I have a few questions.

01:25:03,767	S1:
Go ahead Rosemary.

01:25:04,767	S7:
I'll.

01:25:05,100	S16:
Come back.

01:25:05,467	S5:
Okay. Thank you. So okay, so, um, you just said it's expected to perhaps cover a quarter to a third of a mile. Is that in a circumference? Is that in all directions, or is this antenna directed toward a specific area?

01:25:23,000	S2:
Well, it broadcasts in 360 degrees, but it does get, you know, any buildings, trees, everything attenuates the signal. So it will provide a circular pattern in 360 degrees. But you know, in some areas it may go half a mile. Other areas it might go a third of a mile, depending on what trees are in the way, what buildings might be in the way.

01:25:44,868	S5:
Right. But I also read that this. And it's just because I'm not familiar with this technology. Um, so this foliage foliage coverage, it is not expected to impair it substantially or it will um, I'm not quite sure which because you just said that foliage will impair it, and I.

01:26:09,100	S9:
Thought.

01:26:10,300	S16:
I thought.

01:26:11,567	S2:
Everything impairs it. So if there's any obstruction between the signal and the handset, there'll be some, I guess, interference or obstruction. Um, but, I mean, it will go through foliage. It will go through into buildings. It's just a matter of what they're built, of what the proximity is. But it will be diminished.

01:26:32,367	S5:
Okay. And so this pole is going to be higher than the 15 walnut building. So it'll project maybe into downtown a bit.

01:26:44,767	S2:
It's it should. So we're at the top of the antenna I believe it's going to be a 37ft okay in total height. So I would say it's above all of those buildings. But again it's it doesn't propagate a great distance like a fully antenna. Right.

01:26:59,901	S16:
Sure.

01:27:00,400	S5:
But I mean cell service is so abysmal in the downtown area. So that's why I'm specifically asking if it'll projection to the downtown some more, which would certainly be helpful. Um, and then also, I just wanted to make, um, a comment. This isn't specifically about this, um, Tor this additional, um, cell service facility. Um, I agree with Bill that, um, I'm happy you're here for for AT&T. Um, I just wonder if what do we do? And this is just probably more for the for the board. What do we do if somebody else comes along and says it's less expensive for us to make one of the top of the poll, um, receptors, and we don't want to go on to the big, uh, new tower that might be coming in back of the, um, public safety building. So. So how do we control that?

01:28:03,467	S16:
Yeah.

01:28:03,868	S5:
And, uh, is it, um, because this is the first time this has come up. Um, it's an interesting question, and I agree with Bill that although I don't think 1 or 2 is very unsightly, I mean, I don't see any issues with it. I'm just wondering if the planning board may. This is for Mark. Did the planning Board consider that for future concerns?

01:28:32,801	S15:
Yeah. I mean, I think that was part of the reason why this this provision was added to the bylaws. A whole new section of the zoning bylaw was added about five years ago. Um, and the problem with cell towers in general is that about there's often have concerns with them from aesthetic perspective and there's often appeals associated with them. So another one in Hamilton went on for years. And almost every cell project I've worked on, they've gone on for years. So in my opinion, this is kind of a creative way to address a lack of coverage in a way that is a little bit more acceptable to folks, as I said. Um, no one raised any objections during the public hearing process and there were no appeals filed. So, um.

01:29:11,767	S16:
It's quickly.

01:29:14,167	S5:
Okay. In in the planning boards. Um, opinion if we were to have others who wanted to do this as a way to avoid long, um, prolonged litigation, you don't. They didn't see a problem with.

01:29:29,901	S16:
This.

01:29:30,801	S5:
Aesthetically.

01:29:33,300	S15:
No, this is a good location because it's there's a fairly mature tree that it'll be right next to. So I think a lot of folks won't even notice it.

01:29:41,100	S9:
They're not going to have to cut any part of the tree, are you?

01:29:43,801	S4:
But this is going to take.

01:29:44,601	S7:
A while to get.

01:29:45,100	S8:
Rid.

01:29:45,200	S9:
Of them. We just heard that.

01:29:46,167	S15:
There's a condition in the paper approval that they have to minimize pruning of the tree. They might have to prune a little bit, but they have to kind of maintain that, um, that buffer.

01:29:54,868	S4:
Okay.

01:29:55,968	S9:
Yeah. If there's anything around.

01:29:56,901	S15:
I think it's your question. You know, the town, certainly men in the bylaw if it becomes an issue down the road. But this is the first application we've had. So. Yeah.

01:30:06,000	S16:
Um, um, no.

01:30:07,267	S5:
No issues with this one. I just think, thinking about the future, what should we do? But I'm I'm very enthusiastic about this and hopefully it will help in the downtown area because we certainly need the help.

01:30:24,367	S9:
Yeah, yeah, we need a long term solution. But yeah, I think we move forward with this. Sounds like we have flexibility annually. Not that we would, but and as Mark said, it takes a while to get a tower built and up and and running. But we should at some point, you know, sit down and talk about, you know, the difference in the power on one of these versus the tower and how far breath it takes and what's going to be a better, uh, resource for the town going forward, because we don't want four of these popping up in town, and then they got to go even down like I've seen communities pop them on everything. The MBTA could come in and and use right of ways to throw canisters everywhere, and then you're just kind of patching a network in there.

01:31:02,467	S4:
The MBTA tried to advance that of philosophy my first year here, and there was a lot of pushback from the town, from the select board at the time and the planning board at the time. And after the first meeting, MBTA said, okay, we'll analyze it analyze and come back and they've never come back. So yeah, I never heard from them again.

01:31:22,267	S7:
All the benefits of the tower, though, obviously to the town and their financial health is the is the revenue. Right. You know, so I also don't want to create a situation where it's like, you know, we're more comfortable with that aesthetically. We don't want to take the risk if there's potential legal action against the tower going up or whatever that statement was about. But if there's opportunity for us to make more revenue by having a tower and have better coverage from a single point, it's like, I feel like that's you have to put that in balance of, well, what does this mean for us aesthetically? What does it mean for us short term versus long term? I agree with what Rosie's saying as well about the coverage, and that this is an immediate net benefit to people who need coverage. But at the same time, then there's a bunch of other people in the town who need coverage.

01:32:09,901	S4:
Who are.

01:32:10,300	S13:
Served.

01:32:10,501	S7:
By this, who will not be served by this. Right. So I think we don't want to create a disincentive for the tower to go in, which can have more coverage and more revenue for the town and improve our financial help.

01:32:22,667	S9:
Now, Mark, did the planning board or did we get a RF type map that showed what we would get, like somebody getting milk in the back left of Crosby? Will they have coverage.

01:32:33,567	S13:
Or who.

01:32:33,901	S7:
Maybe.

01:32:35,067	S1:
Was the.

01:32:35,300	S7:
Last name might.

01:32:36,267	S1:
Be built?

01:32:36,901	S7:
Well, I don't know.

01:32:39,667	S15:
They did submit a map showing what they anticipate the coverage to be, and it basically covers the town center area of Hamilton.

01:32:45,868	S9:
So if you.

01:32:46,868	S11:
Have AT&T.

01:32:47,667	S15:
Fill a substantial kind of gap.

01:32:49,167	S1:
Not if you have.

01:32:49,667	S7:
Verizon, I got Verizon.

01:32:51,300	S9:
Um, you'll get a nice mobile.

01:32:52,767	S4:
So.

01:32:53,868	S1:
Yeah. So it sounds like we're willing to vote. Sounds like we got some reservations for a master plan for this type.

01:32:59,767	S4:
Of motion in a second.

01:33:00,767	S1:
And so we're going to vote on it. But I would say, Joe, you know, a joint meeting with Planning Board next time this comes up. Just so we're going to vote on it. We've had some discussion with that.

01:33:09,701	S4:
I know right right here. Yep. Okay.

01:33:11,000	S1:
Yep. All right. So do I have a motion to approve the to approve the license agreement for a small watch facility in front and and right of way adjacent to 15 Walnut Road. I have a.

01:33:23,767	S16:
Motion, so move.

01:33:24,801	S1:
Have a second.

01:33:28,367	S9:
Oh, I definitely want it. I'm not quiet. Yeah. Second.

01:33:31,267	S1:
Okay. All right. Uh, any further discussion? I put mine out there for record, just in terms of a master plan. So we don't keep seeing this one by one. I agree.

01:33:40,968	S7:
I think I'd like to go beyond, you know, that we have a discussion with the planning board. I think that this because it's it's quite strategic in nature. It affects us financially. And we need alignment. You know, it can't just be the.

01:33:56,200	S1:
Yeah, I don't think anybody's suggesting this is in lieu of the tower behind public safety. That's going to go anyways.

01:34:01,167	S7:
But you can see though sort of like if you start popping these up and they're.

01:34:04,567	S1:
But we don't have a plan for another tower though right now I know. Keep that in mind. I know that's not part of our plan.

01:34:09,467	S9:
What it is part I of that?

01:34:11,100	S4:
No, just the one.

01:34:12,267	S1:
Just the one.

01:34:12,968	S9:
Yeah. That's how I was gonna blank it downtown.

01:34:15,367	S1:
What I'm saying. But we're not.

01:34:16,601	S4:
Connected.

01:34:17,167	S1:
But my point is that is that for his concern, this isn't going to no one suggesting this be in lieu of putting the tower up. Once that tower goes up, we don't have a plan for another tower. That'll be the third tower.

01:34:26,400	S9:
No, but his concern is that, well, AT&T won't come and jump on that pole. And then maybe Verizon comes in between now and those two years if we're not rising.

01:34:33,400	S7:
But we need to get the power up.

01:34:35,868	S9:
And then you've got all these other carriers. I mean, I got a solution. I don't need you.

01:34:38,801	S4:
I mean, I won't I won't speak for Mr. Perry or AT&T because I'm not, not legally allowed to. But I would think that since they only anticipate this small facility serving a quarter to a third of a mile radius around and recognizing that there's a lot a bigger area of Hamilton, I think that they'll probably want to go on the pole if it's available there. They might want to talk to the pole developer and try and get a spot on there, because they'll be able to get there. Yeah, single a lot further with only one more facility than having to do.

01:35:10,868	S11:
They should.

01:35:12,000	S9:
Go. They didn't go, though.

01:35:14,167	S2:
You know, one of, you know, one of the limitations with these small cells, there's no backup power. So power goes down. Our signal is cut. Yeah. Uh, when you when we have a full site on a tower or, you know, water tank, something tall. We typically installed backup power generators so we can keep going. You know, especially when the times are, you know, during emergencies, ice storms, snow storms. Power goes out. We want to continue to operate.

01:35:38,667	S9:
So where are you drawing the signal from, then?

01:35:42,367	S2:
What's that?

01:35:42,901	S9:
Where do you draw the signal from for, you know, for this pole. You pulling it from the surrounding tower somewhere, or how is it Wi-Fi or.

01:35:49,968	S2:
Oh, no, no, it's fine. I mean, we bring we bring fiber electricity to the facility, and it connects right to the AT&T network.

01:35:57,300	S6:
It's the fiber.

01:35:58,267	S9:
So it's fiber.

01:35:59,067	S2:
It's fiber. Yes.

01:36:01,267	S6:
Okay.

01:36:02,167	S4:
And after we get the second big pole behind approved behind Tom, behind the Public Safety building. We'd like you to talk to the poll developer because there's two. There's one behind Town hall, and there's there'll be one here behind the public Safety building. Might be a good opportunity for you to really expand your reach.

01:36:17,501	S2:
Yep. Thank you. We'll do.

01:36:19,701	S5:
Um, could I just have I just have one more quick question. When do you anticipate this would go online?

01:36:26,067	S2:
Um, I would say sometime during 2026. Okay.

01:36:31,267	S5:
Not not imminently.

01:36:33,567	S2:
You know, it's everything comes down to budgets. We get, you know, we don't have our approvals yet. So, you know, it's not even in the queue. Uh, once the license gets issued, we have gone through the appeal period. We have to pull a building permit. We've got to get the utility to replace the pole. None of this goes quickly, but I think it's in our 2026 build.

01:36:52,968	S5:
Okay. Thank you.

01:36:54,167	S2:
You're welcome.

01:36:55,367	S1:
All right.

01:36:56,300	S7:
We just just the one thing that I've already said. Just let me clear about it. I'm gonna vote yes on this. I'll just get it out there. But I want us to have better alignment with the planning board. You know, I feel like this is something that's like, I don't want to do a deal with it. One off, one at a time.

01:37:14,667	S1:
All right, roll call. Vote. Rosemary.

01:37:17,000	S5:
Percy. Kennedy, I.

01:37:18,667	S1:
Uh. Tom.

01:37:23,601	S1:
Tom. Might as well come back to you. Bill Wilson.

01:37:26,000	S9:
Bill Wilson, I.

01:37:27,200	S1:
Ben.

01:37:27,601	S7:
Bengoa.

01:37:28,267	S1:
I William Wilson, I and Tom Myers are you if you're there. Otherwise we have four. So we're.

01:37:33,000	S13:
All in.

01:37:33,267	S1:
One. All right. We're gonna we're gonna skip next agenda and come back to it, because we gotta do two quick ones because we have a longer meeting on the. Thank you all. Hey. Thank you.

01:37:43,000	S4:
It was nice.

01:37:43,300	S7:
To meet you.

01:37:43,868	S1:
Thank you. Implement. You're going to be quick on this one. Implement the process to change health insurance benefits pursuant to Master Law chapter 32 by section 2123. So, Joe, are you giving this presentation?

01:37:54,100	S4:
Yeah, it's a short presentation. Um, I need the board's authorization to enter into negotiations with the public Employee Committee, which has been reconstituted, uh, to talk about the health insurance plan, that that would include both the possibility for a future move to the GIC and or or or or a change in plan design that would allow us to save money. The resulting negotiations would hopefully allow the town to save some money on what we pay for. The health insurance plan that our employees get would save our employees some money and, um, and help us, you know, meet future budgets. This is a required vote for me to, uh, begin the negotiations. We've already notified the unions that we were going to request this vote at this meeting tonight, and that we're subject to the a positive vote. I'm going to try to initiate those meetings next week. So we have a date and time and place. I don't vote yes. I can't have the meeting. Gotcha.

01:38:54,601	S1:
Yeah. So why does the motion need to read?

01:38:56,567	S4:
Uh, kind of just the way you read it. Uh, vote to approve or to implement the process to change health insurance benefits pursuant to Mass General Law, chapter 32 B, sections 21 through 23.

01:39:06,167	S1:
But we have to put.

01:39:06,868	S4:
You.

01:39:07,367	S1:
Yet.

01:39:08,167	S4:
To implement the process by authorizing.

01:39:09,567	S1:
Me. Okay. So I have a motion to authorize our town manager, Joe Woods, to implement the process to change health insurance benefits pursuant to mass general law. Chapter 30 to be section 21 through 23.

01:39:21,868	S17:
Thank you. So moved.

01:39:23,200	S1:
I have a second.

01:39:24,367	S9:
Second.

01:39:25,467	S1:
So, Joe, anything else you need from us?

01:39:28,100	S4:
Nope. I mean, you know, we know what we're facing this budget year in FY 27 that we're planning and and likely possibly into FY 28. Um, the board had asked me to look. In truth, I was already looking at it. So it was a good. It was a good. We're thinking the same way. Um, so this is just the next step.

01:39:45,267	S7:
And, um, I saw one of the things in the packet. I can't remember if it was from, um, KP law, um, around having an estimate in advance of some of the meetings or negotiations. Just so it was sort of like that. We were sure that there was potential savings there before we got everybody spent. It sounded like.

01:40:02,868	S4:
I'm working actually on having a pre meeting with our insurer tomorrow afternoon so that we can identify what the potential savings are there. And that's before we even go to the GSA. The GSA is a little more complicated because we've missed the window to go in effective July 1st. So even if we pivot to that area, it would be next January before we go. So you'd only recognize like half a year's savings in FY 27. So we're going to we're going to talk plan design and then see if there's enough there. Then we might go. If there's not we might look at the GSA okay.

01:40:35,167	S1:
Come back to us again or before it gets approved, or you just negotiate it all the way through.

01:40:40,767	S11:
I'll.

01:40:41,200	S4:
Negotiate it through. You know, we'll we'll bring it back and let you know. You'll know. You'll know about it.

01:40:44,901	S8:
Because.

01:40:45,267	S9:
It would be good to know. Like when you pivot from plan design to.

01:40:49,400	S4:
Jesse.

01:40:50,100	S9:
GSA and kind of how you came to that conclusion, you know, well, it could be a good kind of just.

01:40:55,801	S4:
We could we.

01:40:56,167	S9:
Could not to approve you, but just.

01:40:57,901	S4:
I can I can come back with an update. Absolutely.

01:41:00,100	S7:
I think especially if it's impacting like the the percentages, you know, on. On what they have to pay and put in. Um, and if there's a, if the, the savings is being realized because more is coming out of their pocket. Do you see what I mean? Right. Yeah. It's it's kind of thing as well.

01:41:17,000	S4:
Talking about the premium split versus whether we're talking about higher co-pays and deductibles and things like that. Right. Yeah.

01:41:22,701	S9:
Because we let it go up this year 20% or.

01:41:25,267	S4:
Well, we were carrying 22 and then I, uh, we'll get to that part of the way.

01:41:31,567	S11:
But, uh.

01:41:32,300	S4:
We we had a little good news there recently, but it's only a little loose.

01:41:36,767	S7:
I'll keep us posted on it, then. I think it's over.

01:41:39,667	S1:
Yeah. So, Joe, um, so I'm going to vote. Yeah. So do any other comments for your vote? All right. So we'll do a roll call. Vote.

01:41:46,367	S5:
Rosemary Rosie Kennedy I.

01:41:48,968	S1:
Tom.

01:41:50,367	S13:
Tom.

01:41:50,567	S4:
Myers I.

01:41:51,767	S9:
Phil Wilson Wilson I.

01:41:53,167	S7:
Ben Ben was I.

01:41:54,267	S1:
And Bill Olson I. All right so Joe we ask because we love items on the agenda. We actually put priority in case we don't get to some. And so I know that the review, the five board five chairs meeting would you draft Warnock is going to take a while. And if we do that as a last item, we don't get to the next one. Which of the items below it do we need to get vote on today so you can move forward? It doesn't delay you in order.

01:42:16,467	S4:
In order would like you to grab the GFA budget policy and or the hazard mitigation plan. Uh, both should be really simple and quick. You've already discussed them in the past. Um, everything else after that isn't necessary to to be done tonight. But the GFA budget policy you guys reviewed a little bit back in December. Com has since reviewed it and voted favorably for it. It is actually just putting into words what we already do. Wendy is here to speak to it. If you have any questions, but it's in your packet. It's been reviewed. It's been discussed a little bit already. Um, again, this helps us with our, um, earning, uh, a budget presentation status.

01:42:55,200	S7:
So we already have a discussion about the. There was one of the numbers I saw in there. I went from 15 to 15,000 to 25,000 for approvals.

01:43:04,300	S14:
That was just because this was like a standard template. So then we just put the the amount that falls into the policy for Hamilton.

01:43:11,868	S7:
Do we already have this discussion on this that exactly.

01:43:14,200	S14:
Yeah we did.

01:43:14,667	S7:
That's okay. All right. It's like this is now sounding very familiar. So that was what we'll.

01:43:19,701	S1:
Do the motion first and we'll have the discussion. Just keep a fast track here. So do I have a motion to to approve the CFO budget policy.

01:43:28,200	S17:
So moved.

01:43:29,467	S1:
I have a second.

01:43:30,868	S7:
Second.

01:43:31,767	S1:
All right. So for the discussion yes I mean I'm fine with it. So I will leave it up to the rest of the board to have questions. But I think it's important we approve it because it will help obviously as we're in budget season, guide us and make sure that we're following correct protocols and procedures. And it comes from a state template. That's correct. Right. That's correct that we already went through. Yes. And I already read through it. So I'll go around the room. Uh, Rosemary, Any other questions or comments on the template?

01:43:56,267	S5:
No, I think we had discussed it and reading it through. It's just as we discussed. So I'm I'm happy with it.

01:44:05,601	S9:
I think it's great. Tom.

01:44:09,267	S15:
Yeah.

01:44:09,667	S7:
I don't.

01:44:10,000	S2:
Have any additional.

01:44:10,801	S7:
Comments or questions. I'm happy.

01:44:12,367	S2:
With it.

01:44:12,601	S9:
As well. I mean, are we still on track for all of these dates and 45 days before this?

01:44:16,467	S15:
And barely.

01:44:18,000	S9:
Yeah. We better approve it. Yeah. I'm reading through all the good. It looks.

01:44:24,000	S1:
Good. All right. Roll call. Vote. Rosemary.

01:44:27,000	S5:
Rosie Kennedy, I Tom Myers.

01:44:33,667	S1:
You're on mute. Maybe. Tom.

01:44:34,801	S7:
You. Tom. Tom Myers I.

01:44:38,000	S1:
Uh, Mr. Wilson.

01:44:38,868	S9:
Bill Wilson, I.

01:44:40,667	S7:
Bengalis, I.

01:44:41,467	S1:
And William Olson I. All right. And then.

01:44:44,868	S9:
Thank you.

01:44:45,801	S1:
The mitigation plan before we jump to that one. Just this is this is our life safety mitigation plan.

01:44:51,767	S4:
It's a hazard mitigation plan. So it's the federal emergency management authorities or agencies has a standard protocol for how you develop a hazard mitigation plan as an all hazard mitigation plan. We talked about this extensively with the fire chief almost a year ago. Um, it's a very laid out process, a very strict process that the state requires. We are at a consultant to come in and follow the FEMA process. They met with all the put all the prospective boards and committees and department heads that were affected by it, identified all the potential hazards that are known in the town of Hamilton. What our plan is to try to address them. The importance of having this plan is that you cannot apply for federal grant money to try to address these things, and sometimes they can be quite expensive unless you have an approved and adopted hazard mitigation plan. The plan is approved by FEMA and then adopted by the town. So we went through the whole planning process with the consultants. You endorsed it as developed last spring. Then it went through the process with FEMA. What you have in your packets is the crosswalk they went through to show that it lines up with their their expectations, and then they approved it. Now it comes back to you for adoption. There really is nothing in it you can change. At this point, you can only either choose to vote, to adopt it, or not adopt it. The only.

01:46:09,567	S1:
So the.

01:46:09,901	S4:
Only problem I don't have to take it is that you won't be able to apply for.

01:46:12,567	S1:
The only change. So we're going on record. The only change. And the last time we saw it was that FEMA just had to approve it. Yep. Okay. Yep. That's what I was concerned about. I haven't had a chance to go through.

01:46:21,868	S4:
It didn't really change anything in the planet. They were our consultants, and our local staff had done a really good job. And it lined up.

01:46:29,567	S7:
To present that to us in May or something.

01:46:32,100	S4:
Yeah. It was. Um. Uh, Kaplan.

01:46:35,367	S7:
Um, yeah.

01:46:37,267	S4:
I guess I can picture her face when I'm forgetting her first name right now. Jamie Kaplan and, um, so they're, uh. Yeah. We just needed to check this box with a vote tonight.

01:46:45,300	S7:
All right. I mean, and one of the things that it that's in the plan is to also continuously update it.

01:46:51,167	S4:
And so it's a ten year plan, but we look at it every five years and then we rewrite the plan every ten years.

01:46:56,767	S7:
So okay, so five years or four years away from.

01:47:00,767	S11:
Doing.

01:47:01,100	S4:
More work and having another.

01:47:02,067	S7:
Well what if we wanted to update it sooner?

01:47:06,267	S4:
Um, you don't really have to. I wouldn't recommend it at the. The thing is that the FEMA says that the plan is a plan. We adopt the plan. It has multiple different layers, things that we measure as of right now that are more imminent, and things that we want to address and things that are less important. But we recognize that natural disasters don't happen on our schedule. So if something happens to change it, we can move things around in as long as it's on the plan. And we had a reasonable expectation for where we put it, we can still seek funds to address it.

01:47:38,000	S7:
The only thing that obviously we're going to approve it tonight, but the one thing I did want to mention is because I remember when we went through it, there was a lot that was very like kind of, you know, New England focus historically based. And it all seemed right. Like when, when they presented it. And then we had one of the driest crispy est drought summers that we've had. And I was like, hey, this I lived in California for a while and it was like, wow, this is about as crispy as it was getting out there. Except we have a lot more foliage and trees and brush and all of the stuff, you know? And so I, I felt like that's the kind of thing where I don't know, and probably other towns and other places are going to be thinking about this. And I don't want to wait five years, you know, if we can start thinking about that this year. Um, it's something to.

01:48:27,868	S4:
Yeah. Wildfire. Wildfire mitigation is one of the things that's in the plan. As you noted. Normally New England isn't. It's not that high a priority in New England, right? Um, uh, Ben, I don't know if you know this, but my one of my first jobs in government when I left newspapers was to work as a Writing these plans for the Metropolitan Planning Council, I wrote. I wrote a public that had hazard mitigation plans for eight communities and super suburban Boston area. Um, you can move things around in them. But, you know, last year was an outlier. It's going to happen to us every 10 or 12 years. But overall, the plans life is for ten. So we want a plan for what's most likely to happen in the ten years. And then we can. As long as it's addressed in the plan, we can seek funds to to handle something that's a lower priority. We just need to have a reason for why we put it where it was.

01:49:15,667	S13:
Yeah.

01:49:16,667	S7:
All right.

01:49:19,467	S1:
I'm only confused by administratively one thing, but it's just the, um. There's a section on element G, right? So this this is obviously a template that they fill in. Right. And so element G is like high hazard potential damage option. Well it's obviously there's no dams in Hamilton. So. But why is it. Why does it just get deleted. Like it's just still in here. But it says click or here to like that's my I admit to a question like, why aren't they just.

01:49:43,767	S7:
I thought they mentioned a dam somewhere up.

01:49:47,801	S4:
I the only dam I know is on the river. It's technically in Ipswich, but. And it's downstream of us, so I don't know that we'd have any dams within our borders. Okay. Um, that would be affected by it.

01:50:00,601	S1:
It says. It says page on page.

01:50:03,567	S4:
Um, I don't think we're allowed to remove any sections of the plan. We just identified the page.

01:50:07,868	S1:
For us on page 15. It says, um, added the page says you high hazard dams are not located in Hamilton. Refer to chapter four for additional discussion of dams and remove tables that list dams that listed dams.

01:50:22,601	S4:
So we don't have the tables, but we have to keep the section in there.

01:50:25,801	S1:
Okay. It's kind of weird how it's I mean, it doesn't affect us. I don't I don't know why it doesn't like when it says like choose an item and an item is not chose chosen. It's just it's just administratively it looks like we didn't like I don't know. I usually have to, like, do something out of the box. So that's my only question.

01:50:44,567	S5:
Just an A or something.

01:50:46,000	S9:
Yeah, but LMG might you know, they they don't want us to make LMG the next one because G has a right. The same meaning in every community.

01:50:55,601	S1:
Right, right. So it's like elementary but it's just like.

01:50:58,100	S9:
But it should say.

01:50:58,667	S1:
An Anna, right? That's my question. Jos, can you just make a note? We're not. We can still prove it, but just administratively. Like if things aren't, if things are not applicable, instead of having it be like a pull down menu, just gonna just say, nah.

01:51:12,267	S9:
Oh, we can put a dam in somewhere.

01:51:15,100	S1:
Hydroelectric, make some.

01:51:16,200	S9:
Power. Yeah.

01:51:18,367	S1:
All right, so do I. Did I do a motion?

01:51:21,400	S4:
No, we need a motion. First motion to adopt?

01:51:23,167	S1:
Oh, yeah, because.

01:51:23,567	S4:
I did a hazard mitigation.

01:51:24,467	S1:
Okay. Do I have a motion to adopt?

01:51:26,100	S9:
We adopt the 2025 Hamilton Hazard Mitigation Plan second.

01:51:30,567	S5:
Okay.

01:51:31,567	S1:
Uh, any further discussion? So 2025 is okay. Doesn't need to be the 2027 2020.

01:51:36,868	S4:
Because that's how it was approved by FEMA. Gotcha. You can't.

01:51:39,467	S9:
Change it. And it's good for ten years. But we can't.

01:51:42,100	S1:
All right. Uh. Roll call. Vote. Uh, Rosemary.

01:51:45,267	S5:
Rosie Kennedy, I.

01:51:46,501	S1:
Tom Meyers.

01:51:48,067	S4:
Tom Myers, I.

01:51:49,300	S1:
Bill Wilson.

01:51:50,100	S9:
Bill Wilson, I.

01:51:51,167	S1:
Ben.

01:51:51,567	S7:
Ben Kaluza.

01:51:52,167	S1:
I am William Wilson I.

01:51:54,000	S9:
This in no way affects rates of insurance and stuff, right. Well.

01:52:00,067	S1:
Yeah. We talk about this a while ago. It's like all coming back to me.

01:52:02,367	S4:
That's me.

01:52:03,000	S13:
Yeah.

01:52:03,767	S1:
All right, so we're gonna go to the last topic of the night and do a review of the five ward and five chairs meeting and review draft proposals. So I will start with Joe's help and kind of give a quick review of. So we had a five boards meetings. Now it was two, two weeks ago tomorrow Wednesday. Yes. Yeah. And in that meeting we all had the opportunity to present our budget and defend our budget sort of independently. And so when I went first and Hamilton went and then and then the school board went, and the way that handled the way that Vietnam presented their budget was that they said, this is our budget in fiscal year 2026 and based on revenue and based on this, our budget is going to go up five our we have 5.49% more revenue than we did last year. So our budget can go up 5.49% and still be below the levy limit. And then they said if the town budget goes up 5.49%, it's X. And if the school budget goes up 5.4 it's Y, right. And then they took that and compared it to what the town's asking for. The school is asking for, and the school was asking $832,000 in excess of that budget. And the town or sorry together was 832. The school is asking I'm my numbers are around, but the school is asking for like 523 and above. That asks for the which would be the override. And the town was like at like $232,000. Okay. And they said, we don't think we can get to 232, but we can look at that, but we don't think the school can get. So we're probably gonna have to have an override. And that's kind of they left it. But we're. We're both putting money into that override bucket. And then we got when we got to Hamilton, we said, listen, we spend historically dated data driven trends. Historically, 59 to 60% of our budget over the many years has gone to the town, 6% has gone. And it's crept up over the years. And it's a trend that we have to stop because if we keep creeping it up, eventually, it's just not going to be sustainable. Well, then we sort of got accused of basing our budget on 40%. And I said, no, we didn't. We don't base about 40% when we do the budget. It's a trend. It's a data point. It's not it's not a planning tool. It's a it's a trending tool. Right? Right. Couldn't quite convince them that that's how we do things. Right. Because what happened is that if you do it that way, the school budget from last district can only go up like $100,000, because we use free cash to lower that by $550,000. So it's really 650,000 not not 100,000. Because we used free cash. And they said, well, why'd you use free cash? We didn't tell you that. We go, well, we use free cash because we were trying to avoid having a a. Um, and so the difference we explained to the difference was our, Our town budget didn't go up by $552,000 more than we could afford, and we used free cash to pay for that. That's not what happened. Our budget's exactly where it should be, but we lowered it by 5 to 2 so the schools could have an extra 552. We didn't use it to solve our own problem. We use it to solve the school problem. And we can't do that this year. Right. It's kind of how we explained it. So it was the conversation was not heated, but it was not. It was uncomfortable.

01:55:13,267	S4:
It was pointed.

01:55:14,367	S1:
It was uncomfortable conversation. Um, the school committee, the school committee's opinion was that it's one big town. We should go all in together. And we should just. If this is what you need, you ask for what you need. Don't cut your budget because it's like we're saying, if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. The school committee was like, well, if you need it, you have to ask for it. We're like, well, we don't really buy it by the point of need. Like, because if you can't afford it, then you're gonna have to find another way to do it. Right. So we said we would sort of go away and think about when times approach and if we could sort of be part of the process. Right. And so we went back and then we sort of agreed. And not everybody I know people have talked one on one, but sort of our compromise and then they want to have one. They want to have one vote. Right. One vote. Put everything together in one vote with the override. And so then two days later, we had a five chairs, or next week we had a five chairs meeting. And so what Joe and I and I know Joe talked to some people, but what we came up with is a compromise was, um, we did not believe in one vote if we're going to be an override because we do not want the town to not have an approved budget at the end of town meeting. We think that is not fair to our citizens to not have a budget that's approved. So our compromise was that we either separate the two completely, right? Or if we combine them, we combine them at the levy limit. So we say at the levy limit the town gets x and the school gets y. And this is what you get and this is what you give up. The second vote would be would be a combined override of town services that we wanted above and beyond what we can afford, and school services they want above and what they can afford. So if that passes, then everybody gets the override. If it fails, then you have to go back to the original budget. Um, so we went and looked at our town budget Joe did with the team, and we at the time had come up with like, um, 352,000

01:57:15,767	S1:
$320,000 of cuts that we could say, okay, this is what things this is, this is Joe's spreadsheet. This is this is now 502, but it was originally like 325. Okay. And Joe said, hey, these are things that we could give up, but we put them on the override. We still want them so we can convince our community to go for an override. They get these additional services which you think the town needs, but if they can't afford and the school will do the same thing with theirs, okay. And we haven't seen what their list looks like. Yeah. Um, we had a meeting and our comp director asked us more for like 500,000. Can you come up with $500,000? Things that you set aside for the overriding the school would come to a million. So you have like 500 and a million, right? Because really the override is going to be somewhere around $1.5 million. Right. And so Joe came up with a concept to cut fresh.

01:58:05,968	S4:
Let's give credit, Wendy and I and then several discussions with other department heads. And, you know, the biggest, particularly of the biggest departments, public works police are contributing heavily here to this solution. So I don't want to I don't want to take full credit. It's a team effort.

01:58:21,667	S1:
So out of a half a million, we have a communications position which we will not fail next year. Something that we've been asking for a dime for and a better communication to help our town write something we all want to do as part of his is part of his goals, right? That's 50,000. We would not hire a new patrolman.

01:58:36,601	S4:
Just on.

01:58:37,000	S1:
The.

01:58:37,667	S7:
Communications. That also is coming from citizens like of asking us to do that. It's not just us come up with it. It's very clear.

01:58:44,400	S1:
A patrolman that would not add a patrolman. We wouldn't add a public safety. We would eliminate the greeter. So we talked about doing one and a half FTEs. We would just do one FTE. Okay. We get rid of the half FTE.

01:58:57,467	S9:
Right.

01:58:57,601	S1:
Okay. Uh, DPW cemetery, that's a position that we talked about tonight that's not currently filled. Okay. That gets you to 61. Um, our health insurance actually came in lower than it was. So that's another 61 to get you to. 320. And then until.

01:59:12,100	S9:
We get that anyway.

01:59:13,100	S1:
Yeah, I'll get that anyway. Right. Yeah. And then, and then we would get 180, $180,000 in savings if we went to like we used to back in the day. We had trash every week. Right. So if we went said it's a use tax and and once again, if the town votes for the override they get trashed every week. They don't pay for the override. We can only afford trash every other week. Right. So it's.

01:59:34,367	S7:
Recycling.

01:59:35,200	S9:
This is recycling.

01:59:36,167	S4:
This is recycling. It was recycling because.

01:59:38,767	S1:
This is recycling.

01:59:39,400	S4:
The new trash. Yeah. No. It's okay. Um. Can I.

01:59:42,367	S1:
Yes.

01:59:42,601	S4:
Go ahead from there. Okay. So, um.

01:59:44,400	S1:
Yeah, you can go. One more thing. Wait. Before we do that, let me tell you the rest of the story. Then when we came back and says we can cut $235,000 from our budget, we're not going to put anything on the override. We're basically all the override is only going to be the school. So when it's basically going to go in and say, we want two votes, we want.

02:00:02,601	S7:
To know they want to do two.

02:00:04,167	S1:
Well, no, they want they want to do we want to do they want to do what you can afford to the levy limit. And then they want to have the override vote.

02:00:10,000	S4:
But they're not.

02:00:10,367	S1:
Going to have but they're not going to have any town items on the override vote because they think they can get rid of everything.

02:00:15,000	S7:
Well, where I'm confused is that my understanding was when we when we took the school out of our budget. Is this like you just explained this. I'm sorry. I just couldn't follow it. So I'm gonna try to say it back and see how wrong I get it. My understanding, when we met last time, I didn't make it to the five board's meeting, but when we met two weeks ago, my understanding was if we'd take the school out of the picture, we could live within our means at the 2.5%.

02:00:44,000	S1:
At the 40%.

02:00:44,801	S4:
At the 40%. And that's and that's what we were saying.

02:00:47,667	S7:
So like, that's where, um, I'm, I'm just sort of like, well, if there's if we take school out of the picture for a second and it's sort of like, and these are our historical norms and these are the things that allow us to achieve, like our goals. And what we say is the like a level service. Like then we're.

02:01:02,868	S1:
At we're making up to 40%. There's no law. No.

02:01:05,868	S9:
I see why they didn't like the 40 that way, but I know I get why you said the 40. Did anything change from the budget you presented to us that I thought was within our means like that? This from the.

02:01:18,567	S4:
Community?

02:01:19,000	S9:
I mean, did this number go up to come out? No. This?

02:01:22,100	S4:
No no no no.

02:01:23,701	S9:
So the total piece of the pie is the same. And you're just taking stuff that was itemized in here, right. And putting it and calling it out here to say if we have to cut and off income said to, to increase that to 500, which is pulling in the recycle thing, which to me is the difference. And I don't ever recall talking about a budget that didn't that included that changed our frequency of picking up anything.

02:01:48,667	S4:
Okay. So I can give you a couple of stuff on a couple points on that. So, um, first of all, the recycling collection change. So we're in the midst of negotiating the new contract that begins July 1st of 26 and goes for the next five years. The, uh, we got a new rate for what it costs for curbside pickup, both for trash and for trash recycling and composting. And then we get the new rate for what it costs them to do the recycling at their plant. They take the composting somewhere else, and they take the trash to the incinerator. So we don't there's no cost from Casella on that. We just just transferring it to them. With the with the new automated trucks that they want to bring it to town there. The new part of the new plan would be they would give us new 96 gallon recycling totes. So 96 gallon toad is much larger than what we currently people put out, um, on the curbside recycling days, unless they've gone and bought their own tote. Home Depot for the most part, what we give them is that big blue tote. That's what people get for free with the new, larger tote and the amount of money that it costs to recycle at their plant. We thought that we could save some money by cutting down the number of times we pick up recycling to half, so the trucks would still be going around every week. They'll be taking trash and compost every week, but they'll only be picking up recycling every other week. And that would. We estimated half that. 180 is probably going to come down a little bit. Um, we didn't have we haven't got the new number from Casella yet, but we told them what we were thinking and they're supposed to get us a new number. They didn't have it to us before today, so we estimated half of what? The total cost for pickup of recycling is. The. There is some.

02:03:22,067	S7:
Pressing the same amount of volume. They've just taken it. That's where I'm just kind of. Can they fit it all in their trucks?

02:03:27,300	S4:
Yeah. It's the number of times that they have to have a truck pay for a truck to come up and down.

02:03:30,767	S9:
Because your assumption is most people have the smaller bucket, right. And so the truck really capacity probably will hit it, but I don't know. I mean I bought the bigger bucket.

02:03:39,467	S1:
So the.

02:03:39,968	S4:
The the there is some there is some.

02:03:41,901	S9:
But I should encourage me to do that. Right.

02:03:43,901	S4:
There is some precedent for the um there is some precedent for the every other week too. Um, none of you folks were on the board at the time, but when we went in and saw Rosie and Bill were when just prior to to Covid, the town had gone to every other week trash collection. And in the off weeks you could put out a blue bag, but you weren't going to get your trash picked up for free. Yeah. And we were tracking that. And that was a move towards getting more people to use composting before the town adopted mandatory composting. And once Covid happened, that became untenable just because the amount of time people were at home and the amount of trash they were generating because they were at home all day. And so the residents asked and the select board said, we will go back to every other week until we get through the pandemic, and then we'll revisit it. We never revisited it. So there has been some precedent in the town of Hamilton in the past to take components of the trash curbside collection and make them every other week. And we thought, if we're looking to save $180,000 without hurting the delivery of other services in town without laying off. And the problem with laying off is that when you lay off, you have to incur the expense for unemployment. So you almost have to lay off two to get the value of one. And so we didn't want to cut that deep. We got to 320. And we thought, well if we can make this 180 number work around the trash collection project, like I said, that's probably not going to be the full 180. After we talked to Casella, it might be more like 160 or something, but we'll be in the ballpark. We thought that that would be a way to be able to not Have to lay people off and hurt delivery of other town services, we could give them the option. We'll have everybody. We'll have the big new tote. It shouldn't be that big a deal to put off recycling once a week. It's not the.

02:05:24,667	S1:
Same. Let me ask you this.

02:05:25,467	S4:
They don't want to keep around the house for two weeks.

02:05:27,400	S1:
Right. But our our strategy is, is there's things that we're going to cut from the budget and never talk about it again and live without it. So things would come up in the budget. But we're going to say, however, if you want it, vote for the override. So my question to you, Jo, is this something that you're going to say we should live with on it and not put it in the budget? Or should we say no? Give our town people the opportunity to vote for it on the override.

02:05:48,601	S4:
I say these are the things we should give the townsfolk opportunity to vote for. The idea here is that these are still all things that the board had, and the select board and the comp had had said to us as an administration, we want to provide these things, right. We wanted to be able to we need to be able to add a new police officer at some point because the reserve is looking. It's going to be risky no matter what. But the problem is you identify ahead of time what what type of services people lose, or do you just wait for them to reject your budget?

02:06:14,567	S7:
And then some people might feel like, here's why. I'd say it feels risky. Is it sort of like some people might feel like, well, I barely generate any and like, fine by me, we should be doing this anyway, right?

02:06:24,400	S9:
I thought you wanted me to recycle and compost, but it seems contrary to the message that we're trying to to give. And I get the whole, oh, it's a bigger canister. We know better. You're going to fill that. It'll. You have a place to keep it in your garage beside your house. It's not.

02:06:38,000	S13:
Going to get I don't.

02:06:38,968	S9:
I know I'm being sarcastic there because I want nothing to do with saying we're going back to every other on any of it, because I think it's a I, I gotta.

02:06:47,701	S13:
I.

02:06:47,801	S7:
Have more.

02:06:48,267	S1:
I was the vote, the vote for the override.

02:06:51,400	S9:
Well that's so we're throwing that out there like. And why did the fin com drive us to get to 500 versus the number? I think you.

02:06:59,367	S4:
Think that I can't answer.

02:07:00,300	S9:
This, but I mean.

02:07:01,167	S13:
You.

02:07:02,000	S9:
Talk to this board right now like we could go in with our number minus that.

02:07:06,000	S7:
But if it's 6040 is arbitrary, it's arbitrary. Then if that's the trade.

02:07:10,901	S1:
Oh, this is a trend right?

02:07:12,767	S7:
And so I understand the messaging.

02:07:14,801	S1:
What's not arbitrary is our budget from last year to this year not going up more than 4.5%. So Joe was going to look at that.

02:07:21,100	S9:
Yeah. But then so then the budgets all next year with say the override passes then does that 40 goes up. Right.

02:07:27,000	S1:
Well that's what the school said. The school said wasn't it doesn't I go exactly. You're making my point. We're not going to be on a trend.

02:07:32,567	S9:
I just don't agree. I don't like that as a line item. And I'm not sure it's the first time I've heard us talk about. I know there was increases. If I go in here, there was. What was the line? What did you put? You had an increase in there I don't know, it was 180,330.

02:07:45,501	S1:
2000.

02:07:46,100	S4:
$32,000.

02:07:46,901	S9:
Just for.

02:07:47,501	S1:
Districts. Right.

02:07:48,167	S9:
Yeah. So you're saying now you would cut services instead of getting the new contract.

02:07:53,567	S1:
Because one of $332,000 one up is an infinite amount, 30%.

02:07:58,567	S9:
Then we should do an RFP out there.

02:08:01,200	S4:
We're not going to get a we're not going to go lower price than what public public already told one of what they were thinking in the ballpark, and it was more than what Casella was doing.

02:08:10,868	S9:
So. Okay. All right. So you're taking half of that. That's how you came up with the amount. Okay. Yeah. That's a tough one because I, I'm.

02:08:19,067	S7:
So.

02:08:19,367	S9:
But I get it. I'd rather see that than actual heads and things.

02:08:23,267	S1:
Well, what do you what to cut something.

02:08:24,868	S9:
What else is there? That's it though. I mean, like, right to the recycle.

02:08:27,701	S4:
At the end of the day, if we go, if we go forward with an override and the override doesn't pass, something is getting cut. So you have to decide what it is you want to put on.

02:08:35,367	S1:
The chopping block.

02:08:36,667	S4:
You want to put up for consideration. Um, you know.

02:08:40,100	S7:
Why wouldn't we just say, like, I guess I don't I don't understand. I'm I'm failing on the logic when it comes to the town services. Like, I'm not able to understand the logic. I think that it's sort of like if the override doesn't pass, then what the school has, like the negotiated position currently, what the school has said is basically we're all going in as one thing. Right. So like, I don't I don't see it as I'm failing to understand the distinction.

02:09:04,868	S1:
I finally understand what you're asking. Ask the question. Last question. I'll answer.

02:09:09,300	S7:
It. All right. Last time we met. It was all right. We go in with a town budget, you know. And it's sort of like that. That can pass on time. And then we go in with a school budget, and then that can pass on its own if it. So that way we've managed the risk and it's sort of like and we've maintained our level of service was like kind of how we were framing it and talking about it versus cutting services.

02:09:28,901	S1:
And so let me put it in a different way. Let's say the town budget, let's say the school budget voted first. Let's say they voted for us on the war on article eight passes.

02:09:37,767	S13:
Yeah.

02:09:38,701	S4:
Now there's not enough money.

02:09:39,601	S1:
There's not enough money for us right now.

02:09:41,701	S4:
There's not enough money to pass the town budget.

02:09:43,100	S7:
Because the 6040 is arbitrary.

02:09:44,868	S1:
Because 64 is arbitrary, right?

02:09:46,501	S7:
So because they're saying, well, this is what we need. Our level of service cannot drop below this. They're saying so like this. So this is where I'm going with it, is that if we both believe the school committee believes that this is a maintaining a like the same level of service, we believe that this is maintaining the same level of service. and it just sucks that costs have gone up and it happens to be based on the way money has moved around over the past couple of years that the school is seeing a bigger percentage increase. So if then next year though, we're back to 6040. Like if we all just said, well, hell, hell, this is the stuff we need and we're back in terms of our metrics, we're then back at parity because we're not moving money around.

02:10:26,667	S1:
We're not ever going to be 6040 because of the because of the because the because of the state funding went down and the and the, the, the bargaining agreements, whatever went up.

02:10:37,167	S7:
So the new trend is that the 6040 is not going to hold moving forward. It's going to be more like 65, 35. And that's.

02:10:43,167	S4:
Why we're trying to stay away.

02:10:44,467	S1:
From 6139.

02:10:46,200	S4:
We did have Wendy and I look back beyond the last three years, and there was a year about six years ago or 45.5 years ago that that they um, that it was actually 63% for them. And then it came, it readjusted the next year. That's the problem. When you have a year where where their percentage is bigger, you have to almost make it up the next year. And that's kind of what we're facing this year.

02:11:06,267	S7:
So I guess if the metrics are rebased lining right, like we're it's sort of like we're going to be living on a new baseline moving forward. And that is just the nature of the way our schools are organized in this town. And what is happening with the costs that they're seeing in their budgets. But we, like our board agrees. It's like, well, we think this maintains a level of service that maintains our our goals and our objectives for a town. Then I think we're back to the point where it's like, well, we just go in for one thing, and especially when.

02:11:37,801	S8:
It really does.

02:11:38,567	S7:
Seem slightly different.

02:11:39,467	S9:
Potato, potato here, I mean, what you are.

02:11:43,067	S1:
Doing is.

02:11:43,767	S9:
You're giving your base budget. You're giving your base budget, right. Blast recycling once a week every other week. But, uh, and then you have to go through the whole everyone has got a cut and it's a million for the schools, 500 for us, and maybe nothing for one of them. Right?

02:12:01,767	S1:
Well, I asked one and point blank if they're going to put anything on the override on the town side, and they said most likely not.

02:12:08,000	S9:
Because they don't care about whatever percent they were.

02:12:09,901	S1:
And I'm like, why wouldn't you do it if you're gonna go for your override anyways, why wouldn't you ask for things you're giving up? Yeah. We didn't really get a straight answer out of it.

02:12:17,167	S4:
They're just cutting and saying we're just going to live without these things. And instead of saying like, we think that you need these things and we're going to give you the opportunity to, uh, to help us raise the money for them. And if the voters say no, then you don't raise the money for them. There are things in our budget that we've already cut that we're not going to, that we're not going to ask for. These are the things that I think that we should ask for.

02:12:38,200	S5:
Joe. Um, so can I just ask a question here? So the first budget, where there is not an override, we're just saying this is what we can afford to give the schools this X money. And our budget will allow us to do what we think is important for, for the town. Um, and so if that passes, that passes, everybody goes away happy. Until the plan. Now, if that passes, what happens with the override vote? Will there still be the override?

02:13:14,100	S4:
It'll be two votes. The articles. It'll be two articles. And it would be presented in kind of two levels. So we would say the base budget that we're asking you to pass that would provide the basic services for the town and the minimum.

02:13:27,567	S1:
Level services, the more basic services.

02:13:29,167	S4:
Basic services, not level service, basic services of the town and a minimum, you know, you know, less than minimum because it would be a cut it if it's.

02:13:38,100	S7:
More about like we're starting at the wrong baseline then right. You know, if it's sort of like if the mission is level service.

02:13:44,467	S4:
Yeah. Rosie. Go ahead.

02:13:46,300	S5:
No, I just wanted to say just continue to explain that to you.

02:13:50,100	S4:
So we'd be we'd be saying first vote is to cover, you know, a base budget for the town that isn't a level service and a base budget for the for the schools, which isn't even their level service. And then we'd have a second vote to say, do you want to have level service? And the level of service would include the things that are on this list. And if you vote, if you want to have level services, you say yes. If you don't want to have level services, then these are the things that you want that you won't have in FY 27.

02:14:16,501	S13:
Okay.

02:14:18,300	S7:
And so.

02:14:19,267	S9:
You had me up until.

02:14:20,167	S8:
Recycling. Yeah.

02:14:22,467	S9:
Because you also told me that one comment from the one fing comm member told you to raise your number, otherwise that wasn't on there. So I want to know why that.

02:14:31,367	S1:
Was really.

02:14:32,267	S9:
You left for.

02:14:32,767	S1:
Five. We never really got to a number that we because I still I don't understand the the procedural process where let's say we want let's say we have $30 million in our levy limit, right? If we go first and we want a $20 million budget and we vote separately in the school and we voted a $20 million budget, we're good, right? Then the school gets only gets 10 million. It's like this procedure doesn't make you can't. You can't do it that way. So you can't just say what you want and vote first.

02:15:03,000	S11:
Bill, what.

02:15:03,267	S13:
I.

02:15:03,467	S4:
What I try to what I guess I'll try to convince you of on the on the recycling. Is this so the $180,000 there are Wendy and Wendy and I talk with other department heads about several other positions that are that, like, if we had to cut, what would that look like? And it winds up in order to get $180,000, I got a layoff, probably three people.

02:15:25,267	S7:
And if they need.

02:15:26,501	S4:
And those are and those are people that are in jobs now doing work for us. That gets done every year. And so not only does it have the human impact of laying somebody off the.

02:15:35,100	S1:
Job.

02:15:35,467	S4:
Done, but then that stuff doesn't get done going forward. Yeah. And and honestly, if I got to find $180,000, I will tell you that every other week, recycling isn't that big of a heartache, but it's $108,000. I don't know if it's worth $180,000.

02:15:49,667	S9:
So people can't put another bucket out and they won't even come by, but they'll take the.

02:15:53,701	S11:
They'll.

02:15:53,868	S4:
Take the trash of the corn.

02:15:54,801	S9:
Because sometimes they don't. With the blue bucket. If it's pulled them, I know. Anyway. Another.

02:15:59,868	S7:
So yeah.

02:16:00,667	S9:
I still am stuck with the the increase though from a comment though like you're saying like weren't we within it? Like when I was able to say I can get within our number, within our limits. And I thought our number to get within our limits was I thought we got there.

02:16:13,667	S4:
Actually we were working.

02:16:14,767	S13:
But.

02:16:14,968	S17:
We were working.

02:16:16,067	S9:
I thought we were there.

02:16:16,868	S4:
We were working.

02:16:17,367	S9:
Different. I've always been.

02:16:19,667	S1:
Using a 40%.

02:16:20,667	S4:
We were looking at numbers differently than they were looking at numbers. I could just Wendy and I tried.

02:16:24,601	S9:
So the 40%.

02:16:25,767	S4:
Can't make our budget work in the way they were describing it in.

02:16:28,801	S1:
Our if you take the 40%, if you took where we were last time and you took the $500,000 of free cash, you know, our budget went up like 8 or 9%. It didn't go up 4% until 8 or 9. Well, our funding source didn't go up 8 or 9%. It only went up 4%. So we were even though we were planning at the 40%, we still were over what the normal increase would have been because we used the free cash last year. So free cash really screwed us over.

02:16:51,467	S4:
And we and it.

02:16:52,167	S9:
Did.

02:16:52,467	S4:
Clear.

02:16:52,667	S9:
We didn't have in the discussion two weeks ago. It feels like.

02:16:55,267	S1:
To me because we really because if if someone had to bribe in that meeting. So you're telling me the school budget is only going to go up $100,000? We would have said, yeah, it doesn't really make sense. And I and you know who brought that up was Eric. Did I look at these words right. Our school we sold the school. We gave you seven whatever 17 million last year. We're going to give you 17.1 million this year. We only gave them another 100,000. And meanwhile we were getting ourselves another million. So towns getting $1 million, they were getting a hundred.

02:17:20,601	S9:
Some of that due to the allocation.

02:17:21,968	S4:
Yeah. It was, it was, it was, it was returning to it because.

02:17:25,467	S1:
We were trying to return.

02:17:26,167	S4:
Back. We were trying to return to what had been historically accurate. We we did a couple of things last year with free cash. Again, not that there were things that we were allowed to do. We didn't break any of our financial policies. But you can use one time moneys like free cash, for instance, to, uh, to make payments to the entire to our retirement fund. Uh, we don't usually we usually raise and appropriate it. But last year we're trying to avoid the override. And we said, look, we've got it. We've got the money that's here. Let's do this. So we don't have to take it from raising appropriate. That way there's a levy can stay strictly on actual this year operating stuff. So everybody agreed to that. That was and at the same time we were doing that, the school was also spending $2 million of excess and deficiency money. Well, that money's gone now on our side and on theirs. So I don't have the money to go back to free cash to do the retirement fund thing this year. And the schools don't have 2 million of excess and deficiency to go back to, to suppress their assessment. So we have to raise an appropriate once we do that and you start to split along those 6040 lines, now you're really disadvantaging the schools to the tune of, you know, the the whole thing was 1.6. But you, you can make the argument that a million of that is because of the, of what we were doing last year.

02:18:38,767	S7:
Yeah, I think so.

02:18:41,601	S5:
Joe, can I just follow up here just so that I understand the more I listen to this conversation, the more confused I'm getting. But, um, so if we. Oh. So there were going to be two articles with budgets, and the first one will be, um, where we don't have an override. Is that going to be just our budget, or are we going to also include in that budget what we think we can afford to give the schools?

02:19:11,567	S11:
Right.

02:19:11,901	S4:
It would be it would be our budget that I presented two weeks ago, minus the things that are on the sheet. Our budget, minus the things that are on the sheet and what we think we can give the schools. And that would give both sides a baseline budget that if the override failed on Thursday, we at least know we have some amount of money. We can start FY 27 with the peaks.

02:19:29,868	S1:
That gets to the levy limit with no override.

02:19:31,868	S9:
Yeah that's smart. That's smart to do.

02:19:33,300	S5:
Yeah. Yeah. Right right okay. Okay. And then well all right. And then if if people say yes they want to do that, then why would there even need to be an override vote. Just sort of playing it out here.

02:19:48,567	S1:
Because that's only that's that's only base services. It's not level services. So the override gets you to level service. There's a lot of there's a lot of sacrifices, both the school and the need of course.

02:19:59,100	S17:
Right.

02:19:59,567	S5:
But but if we explain that, as I'm sure people will do before the initial vote and that's approved, I, I'm just wondering why we would need to have the override service. Is the override vote. If we already have an approved budget and approved amount we're.

02:20:17,868	S17:
Giving to the school.

02:20:18,801	S4:
Because the approved amount that you have would still require the town to cut $500,000 and the schools to cut a million plus.

02:20:26,701	S9:
Yeah, that first.

02:20:27,467	S4:
One on the school.

02:20:28,300	S9:
Side.

02:20:29,267	S4:
And on the school side, that would probably what I've been told by this that the administration is that to get to the $1.5 million override is 22 positions. So for a $1 million school override is probably on the order of 15, 12 to 12 to 15 somewhere, uh, depending on which positions and those teaching positions. They've already made cuts to non-teaching positions and supplies, and.

02:20:53,501	S1:
They already cut.

02:20:54,100	S17:
Six so.

02:20:55,100	S5:
They can defend their their budget. I mean, I'm I'm I'm not questioning anything that they do. They feel they need this override. We feel that it's just putting the noose too tightly around taxpayer's throat. So you know, it's it's fine. They can they can make their argument. I'm just asking the question sort of procedurally if, if, if we pass this vote with the money we have for this that we've allotted to the schools, why do we have to have a second vote? Is it.

02:21:27,567	S1:
Because.

02:21:27,868	S17:
We.

02:21:28,267	S5:
I don't really understand that procedurally, and you could just explain it very quickly because I know we want to move.

02:21:34,267	S17:
On.

02:21:34,701	S1:
Yeah. It's because we we need the money to have level services and we so we want to give our town the ability to say, yes, we want to pay for the override because we want level services, and so we have to have that vote because we don't have that vote, then we're not giving the town the option to have a level service.

02:21:54,000	S5:
Okay. But if they vote for it, then they are giving giving us an answer to to what they want. Correct.

02:22:01,968	S17:
Right.

02:22:03,000	S4:
So I mean, you know, one of the things that I've wrestled with here is, you know, you come up in this in this field and you do this work for a long time, you always think that two and a half, you have to you have to stand at the two and a half. You have to stand at the two and a half. But at its base, what proposition two and a half really did is it said it set it it set a maximum that you could go to without going to taxpayers. It didn't say you could never go above two and a half, that you could never raise an override. It said that in order to do it, you had to ask the taxpayers. The town has avoided going to the taxpayers since 2009 and asking for additional money. I think that's a credit to myself and to all the department heads and all the boards of committees and all those that came before me between 2000 and 9 and now this year. In the current economic conditions that we're facing, everybody knows the state of the economy beyond our borders with inflation for the last four years going up and other things affecting it. Right. That that inflationary demand was initially met by people raising salaries across the board. Eventually that came to the municipalities, and we raised our salaries more in the last couple of years than we had in the ten years previous to that. We now have to pay that bill if you want to continue to have the services from those same people. It's more money this year than it has been in the past.

02:23:16,567	S7:
So, I mean.

02:23:17,167	S1:
We could.

02:23:17,367	S17:
We could.

02:23:17,901	S5:
I don't I don't disagree with that. I'll just make this, you know, sort of the statement that where does it end? I mean, like everybody's being squeezed from everywhere. There has to be a word. No, we can't afford it. It's just. Yeah. I'm sorry that everybody can't have everything they want. You know what? I can't have everything I want. It's just we have to be. We have to be strong enough and to. To let people know. It's okay if you feel that. We have gone to the well and dug a ditch six feet into the well, you just can't keep saying, well, we need this, we need this, we need this. It just makes me cry. Okay.

02:24:04,767	S17:
That's all.

02:24:05,367	S9:
This is a step towards doing that.

02:24:06,701	S11:
Yes.

02:24:07,467	S1:
We agree with you. We're doing that.

02:24:09,467	S4:
In the say no. And if the voters say no, then we live and we live with what we have.

02:24:13,868	S9:
So what happens if they say no just on? That is so. So then the 502 gets voted on separately.

02:24:19,767	S4:
So we the goal would be to include the things that would be on the override that would be gathered together.

02:24:24,567	S9:
Not separate, not separate. Okay.

02:24:26,667	S4:
So we're still going to have just two votes, two articles and then one override vote, right 1.5. And then.

02:24:33,667	S17:
So.

02:24:33,868	S5:
The second one for us would be an override as well.

02:24:36,300	S4:
Yes it would be. Yeah it would.

02:24:37,667	S13:
Be.

02:24:38,100	S7:
I want to make sure I understand this very clearly. Like so we're going in with basically what is. There's a basic budget which represents cutting staff. Right. For this the school committee is doing that themselves.

02:24:54,267	S1:
But yes, that's our subject.

02:24:55,467	S7:
Right. Like I mean I want to have like real clarity on that.

02:24:58,868	S1:
Well, the school can give you clarity. We're not gonna have it tonight.

02:25:01,467	S17:
Well, yeah.

02:25:02,667	S7:
Yeah. So that's my understanding anyway. Right. But we already are cutting staff like the basic one, right? And then if we go for the override, which represents a certain percentage increase above the two and a half, 4% or something, then they get to keep the staff that they have.

02:25:23,567	S1:
And so the staff that they're proposing on the budget, they're still cutting seven staff.

02:25:26,667	S7:
They're still cutting seven. So even then they're still cutting seven staff. They're not keeping their staffing levels seven people.

02:25:32,167	S9:
They're today not headcount.

02:25:33,501	S1:
If they get the override pass, they still are losing their FTEs by So 6.7 or 7.1 or something like that. There's a whole chart that they gave out and and.

02:25:42,667	S4:
Yeah.

02:25:43,100	S7:
Right. So I mean, so they believe that that cut like this where sorry, that wasn't there just too much travel lately. But they believe that that cut of, you know, 6 or 7 staff members FTEs, they're able to maintain a level of service while doing that.

02:26:02,667	S1:
Right. Correct. Yes.

02:26:04,067	S7:
Right. But if they don't get that override, then they've got to cut another.

02:26:08,400	S4:
Level of teachers.

02:26:09,601	S1:
And they're going to staff bigger classrooms.

02:26:11,100	S7:
Bigger classes.

02:26:11,868	S1:
Less and less options. Less.

02:26:13,868	S7:
And this is all after they just had this like kind of like big turnaround to at one of the schools at one of the elementary schools of like improving quality by getting kids back to where they need to be. So so just so I think that's.

02:26:27,400	S17:
True.

02:26:27,801	S5:
For and for your patience. It's just.

02:26:30,868	S17:
So, you know, it's it's a tough it's.

02:26:33,100	S1:
A tough math problem, a tough word problem because There's no mathematical equation for what percentage we get and what percentage of the school gets. Like there's all you can do is look at trends. And so that's what we try to do is look at trends and look at increases. And so we try to look at a couple of different ways. You know we haven't decided we haven't voted as a group. But the recommendation that I have made is that is that we should you know, you know we were cutting 320. Now it's 500 like yes. That was because the fin com said it. Yeah. I haven't looked at the numbers on what that what that does in terms of percent markups from last year to this year. But it'd be good to see that maybe. But um, but the theory is, is that whether it's 320 or 500, the theory is the same. We're gonna give stuff, give stuff up and say we can't afford it, but if you want to afford it, then you got to vote for it. And if the town speaks and the majority, it's a majority.

02:27:24,868	S9:
It really doesn't matter.

02:27:26,000	S4:
If it's in a majority at town meeting, uh, for either one. And then the override is obviously majority at the polls.

02:27:31,968	S1:
The polls. Right. So it's two votes, right. If the vote town meeting and you got to vote at the ballot box.

02:27:39,567	S5:
The school budget is I thought a school budget was two thirds or and the town budget.

02:27:46,667	S4:
The school capital stuff. But the I don't think it's a two thirds. No, it's not a two thirds vote majority but majority vote to pass the budget.

02:27:55,467	S17:
Mhm.

02:27:57,667	S1:
So we're going to meet. So I'm the five.

02:28:01,000	S9:
People pull stuff out of a budget.

02:28:02,567	S1:
Yeah.

02:28:02,767	S9:
They say they hold somebody stand on the floor and say oh hell no.

02:28:06,601	S11:
Yes. Yeah.

02:28:07,467	S4:
And if they get the if that amendment is approved on the town meeting floor, then we have to subtract out. Wendy's going to have to come with our old town style.

02:28:15,601	S17:
Abacus.

02:28:16,667	S4:
And figure out what the running tally is, is people vote to take things off. But yeah.

02:28:21,400	S1:
I mean, that's the.

02:28:21,968	S17:
Thing that's interesting.

02:28:22,868	S5:
So, so so a resident could make a motion to cut things out of our budget or out of the school budget.

02:28:30,868	S17:
Yep. Yep.

02:28:32,367	S4:
And then we have to. We could vote.

02:28:34,167	S1:
Each one of these things separately if we wanted to.

02:28:36,267	S4:
Not doing that.

02:28:36,868	S1:
I just don't think.

02:28:37,567	S4:
If you want to be.

02:28:38,167	S1:
There, we could literally vote for each item.

02:28:39,968	S4:
We want to be there all weekend.

02:28:40,901	S9:
I don't think yeah they can. Now that we're laying it out. I mean, I don't think we've laid out this much detail at least on the override piece, right? I mean, well, could they have gone in an appendix and said, I want to pull out?

02:28:50,100	S1:
Remember, they can say hold. Remember they.

02:28:51,467	S9:
Asked.

02:28:51,701	S1:
Yeah, hold. They go through each one. Hold on. Hold. But you could.

02:28:55,000	S9:
Have we ever held items in an operating budget?

02:28:57,801	S4:
Not in my time year.

02:28:59,000	S9:
I don't recall that.

02:28:59,968	S17:
So.

02:29:00,667	S5:
And the other, the other part of this is that they're still going to be a debt exclusion, which is another term for an override for the roof. Right.

02:29:10,901	S17:
I mean.

02:29:11,567	S9:
That.

02:29:12,567	S5:
1.4 million from Hamilton. Let's not forget that.

02:29:17,868	S4:
No, we we have not forgot it. Um, that's been a lot of my pushback on the override piece was that, you know, asking for a million and a half override in the same there that you're asking for four and a half on a debt exclusion. Um, really hurts the chances.

02:29:32,667	S17:
Of.

02:29:32,767	S5:
Either we're paying for the for the athletic fields. Now, I'm nervous already.

02:29:38,100	S4:
That vote's already taken. We can't undo that one.

02:29:40,100	S5:
Well, no, I'm just saying those are all current debts in the past year, and.

02:29:48,267	S5:
It adds up. And the tax rate, it all adds up.

02:29:51,767	S17:
Yep.

02:29:53,667	S11:
It does.

02:29:56,000	S7:
I got.

02:29:57,067	S9:
To.

02:29:57,267	S1:
Do that.

02:29:58,067	S7:
Speaking of roofs, we were gonna circle back on that.

02:30:01,067	S1:
Yes. So that so we have a we have another meeting on Thursday morning.

02:30:05,968	S4:
Thursday morning at 8:00.

02:30:07,000	S1:
There's five chairs. Five chairs meeting. What's the what? Would you like me to communicate any differently than what? Like what would you like to continue to communicate. And we can talk about it one on one. Or we can talk about it now. But what? What are you. Um, right now where we sit is that we're somewhere between, you know, putting three between 300 and $500,000 on the override and still demanding two votes, one that we can afford and one that allows a citizen to vote for level service and override. And we are we have a consensus. That's what we should do.

02:30:36,300	S9:
I love the idea. I just again I'm back to I don't I don't understand the oh it just sounds better 1,000,005 hundred versus what the actual numbers were.

02:30:44,000	S4:
I don't know where it came from, but.

02:30:45,467	S9:
I just, I don't understand how that just, like, shifted like so quickly and became, you know.

02:30:51,067	S1:
Well, honestly, we arbitrarily came up with 320. I mean, it was like.

02:30:55,167	S7:
The like the getting recycling picked up every two weeks. Is that great of an idea? Like, I don't understand.

02:31:01,667	S1:
It used to be like that. Just so you know.

02:31:03,601	S9:
It was trash. It was never a no no.

02:31:05,501	S1:
It was recycling. It was a.

02:31:06,467	S17:
Really good I.

02:31:07,100	S5:
Thought it was that, that brown buckets for every other week.

02:31:10,467	S9:
Because we were trying to drive to compost and, and recycling.

02:31:13,701	S17:
And.

02:31:14,100	S7:
I just the amount of recycling that I have piled up every week.

02:31:17,067	S9:
Oh, that's my biggest bucket. I have two. Yeah. And I'm not trying. I'm just thinking. And it's not even I don't care.

02:31:23,901	S4:
You know, if you want to tell me, if you want to tell me to go work on it and we'll take that one.

02:31:27,868	S9:
I want to know what was the logic to go from.

02:31:30,501	S1:
To get our.

02:31:31,200	S9:
Get our guys.

02:31:32,167	S1:
To get ours under 4%, like our increase from last year. Under 4%. That was the logic not to be the 40%, but to have our increase from year after year to be less than 4%.

02:31:43,067	S9:
That was the 320 ish.

02:31:45,100	S4:
I don't think the 500 gets us under the four.

02:31:48,367	S1:
Yeah, the 500 gets under the four.

02:31:50,167	S9:
Oh, I.

02:31:50,467	S7:
See, I see.

02:31:52,901	S1:
It's a year over year increase rather than the 4060 split.

02:31:56,767	S4:
So we're just you know, the items that are on here can change. These are proposals from the staff.

02:32:03,667	S9:
Yeah. No, no. And never would I want someone to think oh we're fighting for that overhead. No way. Every day. You know, like we don't want anyone to lose their employment. I just, I just don't I still don't have my head around the shift of why we had to go up there and even throw it on there, but you guys are the 4%.

02:32:21,901	S1:
It's a year over year increase.

02:32:23,267	S9:
It seems to me. John, someone made a comment. you guys said, okay, that's what it seems.

02:32:28,767	S8:
Like side of things. I think stopping recycling.

02:32:35,100	S1:
We're not stopping recycling. We're not stopping recycling just every other week. Yeah.

02:32:40,067	S9:
Yeah, exactly. Right. Right.

02:32:41,667	S7:
And you go buy more blue bags.

02:32:43,267	S9:
It is a mixed message between all the others.

02:32:45,167	S7:
Go buy more blue bags and put it out.

02:32:47,267	S4:
I get that it's a mixed message. I will say also, recycling now costs us more than than trash, right? I know that's because it's cheaper. It's cheaper to process trash now than it cost. Than it.

02:32:58,767	S7:
Is per pound.

02:32:59,667	S4:
Per pound.

02:33:00,200	S1:
Per pound. I mean, most people put out one one recycling bucket a week. You buy another bucket for 9.99 Home Depot and you put it out every, every other week. I mean, we're not talking about earth shattering changes, right?

02:33:12,267	S9:
No one's going to pick it up every the second week. No matter how many you buy. You can buy a blue bag every week. So people are going to buy blue bags and put that recycle in.

02:33:18,767	S1:
I'm saying, but you put two buckets out every other week instead of one bucket out every week.

02:33:23,667	S4:
We're not limiting how much. We've never limited how much they put on.

02:33:26,167	S7:
I've already got multiple trash cans for recycling because the amount of carbon.

02:33:29,167	S9:
Yeah, I just think it's a bad message. You're right. If you have room to do that, a lot of people don't have room to do that. I just think, yeah, it was neat. I mean, I see the increase. It was 263 for that.

02:33:42,000	S14:
Can I clarify something?

02:33:43,767	S7:
Yeah.

02:33:44,567	S14:
If you if you take 500 out, we're at 2.5% increase. Just so you know.

02:33:49,167	S1:
Is that including the the free cash math from last year?

02:33:53,868	S14:
Yes, yes it is.

02:33:55,567	S4:
Okay.

02:33:58,300	S1:
And if you put the 160 back in where it went.

02:34:02,868	S14:
Uh, give me. Yeah.

02:34:09,100	S1:
You can put that on a spreadsheet.

02:34:10,501	S14:
Three and a half, 3.5%.

02:34:12,868	S1:
I think that's where we came up with the original 320,000 or something, but.

02:34:17,000	S18:
I don't know.

02:34:19,567	S9:
All right. I don't think there's any different message back. I mean, I think I like the idea of that breaking it out. Making sure we have I'll call a base and our level services to keep the lights on. And then then the question becomes you've got a, you've got a path now for each entity to go back and cut. You've laid it out already right. So it's not like then we could like the school is going to lay it out.

02:34:39,901	S1:
School's got it.

02:34:40,667	S9:
We've got it laid out. And I mean, maybe I'm sure there will be flexibility in that. Or maybe they wouldn't be like, could you, could you could.

02:34:46,868	S17:
The.

02:34:47,000	S9:
Schools to change it, as long as you get to the number after the fact.

02:34:51,701	S1:
We don't. Yeah. I mean I don't know. Is there a budget of bottom line. But I mean.

02:34:55,767	S4:
So, so, so generally the, the biggest thing we can cut to, to make changes to the budget are um, as employee costs. Right. And so once you get into employee costs, the way we build our budget for employee classes, we start with manpower sheets. So we identify the number of bodies against the rate that they're going to earn over the course of the year. Do they do the math?

02:35:17,300	S1:
Yeah. But the question is asking.

02:35:18,701	S4:
So you can't you don't when you cut in the salary lines, you're actually cutting a body. You can't.

02:35:24,567	S1:
No no no no, but that's it. That's what he's asking. What he's asking you to. If the override doesn't pass and we don't get $261,000.

02:35:31,100	S9:
Menu, or can we.

02:35:32,367	S1:
Add.

02:35:32,667	S4:
No, no, no.

02:35:33,267	S1:
Can you change it up?

02:35:34,167	S4:
No. I would not recommend that.

02:35:35,901	S1:
You said, oh, we can now can afford the communications guy because we're saving.

02:35:38,868	S4:
I would, I.

02:35:39,100	S1:
Would, I would.

02:35:39,868	S4:
I would, I would never.

02:35:41,067	S9:
Have.

02:35:41,667	S4:
I would never. The only way. The only way you go to the voters with an override and ask them to to save something. Is that you make sure you save that. And that if they don't, if they say no, you don't return it. Okay? But you have to be.

02:35:53,467	S9:
Those people that don't lay out the services. They just say they'll lose a dollar amount. And then you have the ability to be flexible. I think what we're trying to do with the schools is show what you're losing, right?

02:36:03,667	S1:
Well, they have to for their message.

02:36:05,067	S7:
That's right. So they'll.

02:36:06,100	S9:
Get what they.

02:36:06,767	S17:
Want. They'll be fine.

02:36:09,501	S5:
But they don't. I mean, they they don't we?

02:36:13,501	S17:
I mean, they give us the benefit.

02:36:15,467	S4:
But they would they give us a bottom line budget. But they have to they have to equate their paychecks. Of thousands of dollars. It relates to.

02:36:22,167	S17:
Every.

02:36:22,667	S4:
Position.

02:36:23,067	S17:
So. Right.

02:36:23,667	S5:
But but they can change what their.

02:36:25,868	S17:
They.

02:36:26,100	S5:
Can do.

02:36:27,100	S4:
They can be can right.

02:36:28,868	S17:
They can what they can.

02:36:30,367	S1:
Yeah. They can change. But.

02:36:32,000	S5:
Right. Exactly. Exactly. That's that that's what I'm saying. So if the override were to fail, then they could perhaps look over their budget again and decide that they don't need to cut so many staff they could cut somewhere else. And. But that's. But that's them I don't know.

02:36:53,300	S1:
I think correct.

02:36:53,868	S7:
Yeah. So you've asked us what do we want from.

02:36:57,100	S1:
What message do we want to give the school board.

02:36:59,000	S7:
And we did I think in advance of going to that meeting, we should share the strategy like.

02:37:05,400	S1:
Yeah, what what year? I want to see what year over year increase we have to our budget which is which is the approach that we took.

02:37:13,100	S9:
Yeah.

02:37:13,901	S1:
And that's how they got to their 5.4%.

02:37:16,801	S4:
That that their budget doesn't line up with what they were saying in the meeting. Wendy and I have looked at.

02:37:22,567	S1:
That, but fine. But just give me the year.

02:37:24,100	S4:
No way. There's no if you if you did the math, the way they explained it to our budget, we would need an override for $900,000 and the schools would need one. It was ridiculous. It was like that. That actually just doesn't make any sense.

02:37:37,100	S7:
It was the challenge. All right, so now, like, this is where it's sort of like you've got when I'm doing accounting the way they want to do it. The situation arose. You just explained as well with, well, the school just is a bottom line budget no matter what. And then we have us like kind of trying to do this forensic thing. So we've got apples, oranges and bananas and giant fruit basket.

02:37:57,067	S1:
Welcome to welcome to Municipal Budgeting. So I know.

02:38:00,767	S7:
Well what I would like to request is that all three entities say, here's our basic services. That keeps us at two and a half or just 8.

02:38:10,567	S1:
Or 10 schools and a half that they said, no, they're they're saying no.

02:38:13,567	S7:
These are saying.

02:38:14,467	S1:
No. They say we cannot cut. We're making and forcing them to do that. They're not coming to us and volunteering that penalty.

02:38:21,100	S7:
Right.

02:38:21,567	S4:
So they're they're they're they're.

02:38:24,367	S1:
Saying their budget is their.

02:38:25,868	S4:
Their philosophy or approach to the budget.

02:38:28,000	S7:
Is that like increase like 9%.

02:38:30,467	S4:
So they, they see their they see the role differently than the way we see our roles. Right. They which is fine.

02:38:35,367	S7:
They just try to understand.

02:38:36,167	S4:
The way they perceive the way the way they explain.

02:38:38,167	S7:
It in the math. Like of like they're saying even like. Because what I'm understanding is that they're saying we can lose 6 or 7 people and but and that equates to a 4% increase or something. Yeah. Like I'm just trying to understand like that. That is what they believe is there.

02:38:55,000	S14:
No no no, they've already cut and they're still at 7.2% increase.

02:39:01,267	S17:
Right, right.

02:39:01,868	S5:
They cut $290,000.

02:39:04,567	S4:
That was that was that was the most recent one. They, they that was the fact that they made an earlier they made an earlier cut. So they're a total I think they're around six to 90 or 700,000. That what they've cut from when they originally started doing their budget planning back in November and December. Okay. But, you know, they're still at 7%, upwards of 7% for Hamilton side of the assessment. Okay.

02:39:24,901	S7:
And then when we look at ours like less this 500 grand, what's our percentage increase over ours.

02:39:35,801	S4:
We'll we'll get that. We'll bring that.

02:39:37,567	S7:
Back to you. It feels like my ask would be. That's just sort of. All right. These. This is where we. I don't really care where people started their budgeting process. What matters is where they are now, what their percentage increase is.

02:39:51,000	S1:
Yeah. Year after.

02:39:51,467	S17:
Year. Over year.

02:39:52,100	S1:
Year over year.

02:39:52,767	S9:
Right. We pulled out a hole.

02:39:54,601	S7:
Right? Right. So it's like all three entities should say this is these were the services we provide last year. These are the services we're providing this year. It represents this percentage increase. In order to get back to that level, service would be this percentage increase in all three parties should show that. And it's like that's what.

02:40:11,501	S1:
That's what we asked for. Yes, that's what we asked for.

02:40:13,467	S7:
Right. And then Bynum said, we're not going to do.

02:40:15,100	S17:
It that way.

02:40:15,567	S5:
They prefer.

02:40:16,267	S17:
Not to.

02:40:16,567	S1:
What if they don't need to do it that way? Because they don't. They don't have a year over year increase that requires an override.

02:40:23,100	S7:
A year over year increase.

02:40:24,968	S4:
I still really don't understand what it is they're doing.

02:40:27,467	S7:
So that's what I'm getting at, though. It sounds like they're doing something funny about it.

02:40:30,467	S1:
No, no. That's funny. They're taking this list right here that we came up with, and they're saying we don't even want to put it in front of town to add them back in. We're just going to eliminate it. No different. We're doing the same thing.

02:40:39,868	S7:
Attain a level of service.

02:40:40,868	S1:
Right.

02:40:41,100	S7:
Right. Correct. So they are decreasing their level of service? Yes. That's how they're approaching. Yes. Right.

02:40:46,367	S1:
And they can do that.

02:40:47,167	S4:
They can.

02:40:47,567	S7:
Okay. So that's that's their strategy then. Yeah. And then our strategy is we want to give the town the option to maintain a level of service. The challenge becomes that we're saying the level of service as far as the school goes, though, is a 7.2% increase in their budget. And a level of service for us is a 3.5% increase in.

02:41:11,100	S1:
We'll get the we'll get the numbers right.

02:41:12,567	S7:
Something like.

02:41:13,100	S1:
That, something like.

02:41:13,667	S7:
That. And I think just having those. Yeah that's it. Just that's the, the only ask is that those numbers are clear to that when I'm just kind of owns it and says yeah, we're cutting services. Right. That's how we're getting around the.

02:41:27,300	S1:
We're not going to control. But yeah.

02:41:28,667	S7:
Well they don't have to say it. They can just but it's just sort of like oh well like show us the math. So that way at least we all know what's happening.

02:41:35,901	S17:
All right.

02:41:36,667	S1:
Great. Well we already know. They already said they're year after year is going up 4.49% or something like that. It was on that spreadsheet they gave us. You don't have it with you tonight, right?

02:41:45,801	S13:
Yeah.

02:41:46,300	S7:
So then when we blend our payment, so when we look at like our level of service for our town, and then we look at the percentage of costs that we have to cover for the school district as a town, our percentage increase is what.

02:42:03,701	S1:
6%, whatever the rest.

02:42:06,067	S4:
Six.

02:42:06,567	S7:
5%.

02:42:07,267	S4:
When did you said that? If it's. It's 2.5%.

02:42:11,000	S7:
No, no, that.

02:42:11,367	S17:
Was for.

02:42:12,400	S14:
You. It depends if you include free cash or not. And if you don't talk apples to apples, it really does confuse the entire right calculation.

02:42:20,767	S1:
You have to include the free cash issue because we that is, if you don't include that, then you really fucked out, okay. Because a 520 is like 5% right there of our budget that we automatically are going to ask for because we're not using free cash. So we immediately got to ask for $520,000 more this year just to make up for the free cash we lose. And then on top of that, we have the trash, the health insurance. Yeah, the step increase and it gets up to like $900,000.

02:42:48,801	S7:
I'm getting closer to understanding that.

02:42:50,267	S1:
But so we're actually asking for $900,000 more than we had last year. Yeah, in the original budget. But now it's less than that.

02:42:59,467	S4:
Trying to make it less than that.

02:43:00,868	S1:
Now it's more like 600 because of the free cash thing. Okay. That's, that's that does skew things, but you gotta. You can't ignore.

02:43:08,801	S4:
It. And again, some of the stuff will change. We're going to talk to these employees next week about the about the insurance plan. Maybe we get some savings there that we can show in this budget. And that changes some things. Again, we can but but these are this is where we're thinking right now is how we're trying to get to.

02:43:24,200	S7:
Yeah I mean.

02:43:27,100	S5:
We.

02:43:28,601	S1:
All right. So let's. So so real quick, if you want me to call, look at the call. Call me if you want me to. If you need somebody you want me to. But I'm. I'm supposed to bring all our voices to the five chairs meeting. So, um, I'll do our best. Um, the other thing I want to talk about, unfortunately, left was, was the, um, was the one one article that we haven't finalized. Or maybe there's other ones, too, Joe. But, yeah, this is the. But is is the one about, um, is the stretch code okay. And so we talked about it a couple weeks ago or a month ago. We had some concerns about putting something onerous on our citizens that may they might not be able to afford or may limit development or growth or construction in our town. Right. So one of the things that we were asked to do was to look at sort of the cost. So he said he has some cost data. Unfortunately, we kind of got beyond it. But it's good to see that. So, Joe, if we could get the cost that he showed about the 15 houses that were.

02:44:26,200	S4:
Yeah, we'll have he they email it to you. He emailed it to you all today. We can have it on the agenda for full discussion at your next meeting. Um, up on the screen, you'll see that currently what we're what we're tracking for Warren articles. And we're hoping that you will vote to close the warrant at your next meeting. So that's part of the reason I wanted to have this discussion tonight. But currently, what we're showing you is that all of the articles that we know of at this moment, uh, for the upcoming annual town meeting, we have nothing right now in zoning. Um, the planning board is meeting tomorrow night. I'll know for sure if that's going to stay that way after I talked to Mark on Wednesday, but as of right now, they haven't identified a zoning amendment that they want to tackle this year. So the first section is your normal regular elections reports and procedures. Then section two we're tracking competition classification table. Prior to your bills general and town school appropriations.

02:45:20,167	S17:
That.

02:45:20,367	S1:
Would levy.

02:45:20,801	S4:
Living levy limit general and town school appropriations. That's the level of service budget then capital water enterprise budget annual financial.

02:45:28,167	S1:
Reporting for under capital.

02:45:29,901	S4:
Uh, we'll have that for you.

02:45:31,667	S1:
That we are voting for.

02:45:32,767	S4:
We have capital. Yeah. Um, uh, water enterprise budget. We presented in the in the budget meeting.

02:45:38,367	S1:
Two weeks ago. We had $900,000.

02:45:39,801	S4:
In annual financial actions. That's usually transfers to, uh, in and out of various funds for conservation and different things. Um, Hamilton Development Corp, the OHP trust fund, which is a free cash spend capital stabilization, which is a free cash brand, community preservation budget. And then the, uh, high school roof that should be roof, not rude high school roof replacement project and then other than financial.

02:46:05,968	S1:
Community preservation budget.

02:46:08,300	S4:
Even though we don't have any requests for the Community Preservation Committee this year, you still have the money that's going to come in and you have to set their budget. So you have to put money in each of the three funds, and then you have to establish their operating budget. Okay.

02:46:19,267	S1:
We do that for you here.

02:46:20,100	S4:
We do that every year. Okay.

02:46:21,701	S13:
Then.

02:46:22,567	S1:
Okay.

02:46:23,267	S4:
And then sale of portions of the patent homestead. This is something that we're working on. We'll be giving you more information on. But, um, we're working on a plan to potentially sell the three buildings and about 4.8.9 acres of land to a nonprofit group that would operate the homestead as a combination of things, a partial museum and a place to run veteran services programs like help with, help with not not like serious issues, not PTSD programs. They might provide some referral services for that, but they'd be doing, you know, resume.

02:47:02,000	S17:
Building.

02:47:03,501	S4:
Training, job training, resume building, things like that. The group is already doing this work. It's known as the Patent Foundation. They already do this work at a facility at Sam Fort Houston in Texas. And so we're making some progress. I have to get an RFP together for them to respond to.

02:47:20,767	S7:
The only interested party in it. Like or is it?

02:47:23,467	S4:
So, you know, we'll we'll bring the, uh, patent task force in to talk to the board at the next meeting. Um, we've kind of gone around and around trying to figure out the the way the gift was conveyed to the town in 2012 was that the town was going to do it to kind of, um, protect the, the the history of the patent family and the town of Hamilton. And, um.

02:47:49,167	S7:
Just like it's got restrictions.

02:47:50,801	S4:
We just we aren't able to do certain things that this group would be able to do is this and provide the.

02:47:56,000	S9:
Cost of the patents.

02:47:56,901	S4:
You said it's the It's called the Patent Foundation. Helen Patent is on the board of directors. Um, and, you know, it's it it's difficult for the for municipal government to do what that building really needs. And it really creates a cost center around the maintenance of those buildings, uh, for us. So if we conveyed the that small part of the property, we could protect the rest of the property for the benefit of the community, the big open space, the connection to the river would all stay with us, and we'd be a neighbor to them. But they would they would operate the buildings and take that cost off of us going forward. Um, the, uh, both the Hamilton, Wenham, Rod and Gun Club and the, uh, Miles River Marsh rats, uh, their leases for the property out of the end of the road are coming up, so they need to be renewed there. I met with both today. They're both requesting 20 year leases. Those are actions that have to be taken by annual town meeting. So we can talk about that. Um, specialized stretch code. and then the authorization for the Hamilton Wenham water treatment arrangement. That is still vague and being worked through. But Wenham has some needs around water treatment and Hamilton has some needs to look to the future. So we are trying to work together. They need to address PFAS in their water and we already do that. It would actually be it could actually be cheaper for them to connect their raw water services to the Hamilton plant and have us clean their water and send it back to them.

02:49:27,067	S13:
Okay.

02:49:28,567	S4:
And in that line.

02:49:29,767	S1:
How far away is our.

02:49:30,868	S4:
There on the other side of Pleasant Pond.

02:49:32,067	S11:
From us?

02:49:32,968	S1:
Oh, really?

02:49:34,467	S17:
That's true.

02:49:35,400	S5:
I thought that we were we were getting toward Max in our ability to, uh, pump out water.

02:49:43,400	S4:
I thought our proponents big enough to pump up more water than we than we currently pump. We just. We just don't have the right to take more water from the watershed.

02:49:51,167	S1:
Yeah, we're at our maximum limit for what we can take out of the watershed with this one time.

02:49:54,901	S5:
I know that I thought one of the conversations that we had within the past month was talking about thinking about updating our water treatment plan to, to make it perform better. No.

02:50:09,968	S17:
Okay.

02:50:10,400	S4:
No. We're our water treatment plants performing better than it had in, you know, prior to my getting here. The town had undertaken a lot of upgrades to the plan itself. And then we did the then we did the secondary treatment for the PFAS. And it's operating.

02:50:24,601	S1:
On here that have a lot to do in the next two months.

02:50:26,901	S4:
We got a lot to do in the next one.

02:50:27,968	S9:
I know, and you want to close it soon, like especially the patent one that just seems aggressive. Yeah I mean I thought when we started it, it was like a long term lease agreement versus.

02:50:37,901	S4:
So the idea here would be that that three one article would be an authorization by town meeting to authorize the select board and the town manager to pursue a deal. It wouldn't be the final deal, but we'll present to them what we could. It leave it open enough for us to present to them where we're at in April, and then it gives the board the the final say in conveyance after we get a deal that we want.

02:51:03,267	S9:
Okay.

02:51:03,667	S4:
But the task force includes the fin com, the select board representative, the representative select board, the users, the.

02:51:09,968	S9:
Who's who's on the board. That's on it.

02:51:12,100	S4:
Rosie, now.

02:51:13,167	S9:
Have you been to have you had meetings, Rosie, on that.

02:51:15,868	S5:
Yep yep yep.

02:51:17,267	S17:
Yeah I'm.

02:51:18,300	S5:
Pretty excited about it. Bill.

02:51:21,067	S9:
Yeah. I just feel like I'm here. Not for the first time, but we've had no updates, so it seems quick to go to April floor to me. Not that it's not a bad path, but I feel like we have.

02:51:32,367	S5:
If you if you want, we can talk. Bill, if.

02:51:35,167	S17:
You.

02:51:35,467	S9:
Think we ought to talk like as a group at the table on.

02:51:38,767	S17:
Um.

02:51:40,167	S5:
Right. I just think I mean, I'm just thinking if you want more information before our next.

02:51:45,567	S17:
Meeting, that's.

02:51:46,367	S9:
A call. That'd be great.

02:51:47,467	S1:
Um, on the. Yeah, the next meeting, too, is like, one of the things that we had talked about was having a developer come in and talk to this dress code, and so I talked to Tom Ford about it. So I wanted to maybe try and bring him or his brother to the next meeting. So I can understand from that point of view, because once again, I'm fine with putting things in in front of the town to vote. I know we're not making decisions for the town, but are we? So it's like you have the town votes down. They voted down. We're not voting it down. If we don't bring it to the town, then we've essentially blocked something from happening that may benefit the town by raising money to help improve properties in town. Right. So I'm not sure that I'm in favor of it right now, but it doesn't mean I want to not have the town at least vote on it.

02:52:30,167	S13:
So the only thing that is said as well on.

02:52:32,968	S7:
It was he mentioned something.

02:52:34,300	S13:
Around a 4000 square foot.

02:52:36,467	S7:
Building.

02:52:37,367	S13:
Like that was.

02:52:38,367	S7:
New information, because that didn't come up in the presentation last.

02:52:41,367	S13:
Time.

02:52:42,100	S1:
If it's over 4000ft², you need solar.

02:52:44,267	S13:
Yeah, okay.

02:52:45,367	S1:
Or planted or plant a tree.

02:52:47,567	S7:
So you don't.

02:52:48,667	S1:
Which it's pretty.

02:52:49,701	S13:
Safe.

02:52:50,000	S7:
Yeah, well, they build it under a shade tree. You know.

02:52:53,567	S5:
Well, but, you know, I think it's important when we talk about this, the stretch code, that there are other issues. I mean, we can talk about potential upsides and we can talk about the realistic financial, um, expenses that will that people will incur as a result of this. So I think it's important that if we are going to present this to the town meeting, that we make sure we present it accurately.

02:53:24,000	S1:
Agreed. Yeah. Get all the data, the facts, and put it in the right way. But once we're told it's only new, new construction. It's not renovation.

02:53:31,067	S13:
Yeah.

02:53:31,868	S5:
It is. Also, it does include renovations. It includes, if you do a large scale renovation, to my knowledge, it does include that.

02:53:44,167	S7:
Maybe.

02:53:44,601	S13:
It's.

02:53:44,868	S4:
Over a certain size.

02:53:45,767	S7:
16.

02:53:46,400	S4:
Percentage.

02:53:47,000	S13:
But It's.

02:53:47,567	S4:
A certain.

02:53:47,801	S7:
Percentage, probably.

02:53:48,868	S5:
Right. It's, you know, a substantial renovation. And we know that those go on here, too. Um, you know, I think there are a whole I think I said this at the last meeting and I'll give it 10s synopsis I think that the first part of the green communities is wonderful. I think that this this introduces a lot, um, a lot of mandates that that maybe they're not mandates right this moment, but the state has the opportunity to change anything at any time. And I think we need to look carefully at it. I think realistically, we are maybe five years ahead of ourselves in terms of this. There are only 28 communities out of 351 communities that have voted for this. And that gives me a little pause. Like what? What is what is this involved? what is involved in this. So I just want us to be careful.

02:54:55,701	S9:
How many meetings do we have between now and town meeting? Yeah, because we got a lot.

02:55:00,400	S11:
You have three schedule? Three? Well.

02:55:03,801	S4:
You actually might have four. There's one. You have one. At the beginning of February.

02:55:06,868	S7:
I won't be able to make next week's meeting. I have to travel again, unfortunately.

02:55:10,501	S11:
Thanks.

02:55:11,467	S9:
We have a.

02:55:12,000	S13:
Week.

02:55:12,167	S7:
Meeting or not? In two weeks. I mean, sorry.

02:55:14,367	S13:
The next.

02:55:14,868	S9:
Tuesday, the 20th. Tuesday the 20th.

02:55:17,167	S4:
Tuesday the 20th.

02:55:18,167	S7:
Oh, is it, uh, Tuesday the 17th.

02:55:21,467	S4:
Two days. I'm sorry. Tuesday the 17th. Tuesday 17th.

02:55:24,801	S7:
I'm out of town that day, so I won't be here for if we close the warrant, I will not be here, but can.

02:55:30,801	S4:
Is everybody else going to be here? Do you want to consider moving the movie into a meeting date? You could move it out.

02:55:38,000	S17:
What day is it?

02:55:39,000	S4:
It's Tuesday, February 17th.

02:55:44,000	S1:
I'm fine with moving it.

02:55:46,100	S4:
Following.

02:55:57,100	S7:
The 24th Monday.

02:55:59,567	S4:
Following Monday would be the 23rd. That would mean that you'd have two meetings back to back, the 23rd and then second. But at least it would give you time between then and give me time to get some more answers for you on some of those other articles that you just sort of offer the first time tonight.

02:56:15,400	S13:
No.

02:56:16,167	S5:
I don't think it matters to me. Whatever works for everybody else is fine.

02:56:21,100	S4:
I'd like to have the best chance to have all five years. So whatever works for the five.

02:56:25,200	S13:
Of you.

02:56:25,767	S4:
It works for me. I'll be here either way.

02:56:29,267	S9:
Looks all right to me so far.

02:56:31,000	S4:
For the 17th. For the seventh, 24th. 23rd.

02:56:33,868	S11:
Right.

02:56:34,100	S4:
Yeah, yeah. 23rd.

02:56:35,267	S7:
Okay. For that is school vacation week anyway.

02:56:38,000	S4:
23rd. Does the 23rd work for you?

02:56:39,701	S7:
Yes. Yeah.

02:56:43,767	S7:
Because the week of the 17th was school vacation week.

02:56:46,868	S4:
The 23rd were free.

02:56:51,100	S7:
Yeah, I can do that.

02:56:52,567	S11:
Okay.

02:56:53,467	S4:
But, Billy, you want to take take a vote of the board just to confirm that you want to move the meeting? Yeah, I was going to.

02:56:58,567	S1:
Have to make up a.

02:56:59,767	S7:
Vote. All right.

02:57:01,100	S1:
Everybody said everybody's on record saying the 23rd is good. And I'll hold.

02:57:04,701	S7:
Your feet to the vote. Okay.

02:57:06,000	S4:
Okay.

02:57:06,667	S7:
All right.

02:57:07,701	S4:
We'll move that meeting to the 23rd, and then we'll let everybody know. That's good. That'll help us. I think it'll help me because I have to get an RFP to have.

02:57:14,367	S1:
To get done before that. So I'll give us three weeks to get people lined up from that meeting and that.

02:57:19,367	S7:
I guess the question I have with the RFP is it sounds kind of like it's sole sourced, right? Like, I mean, at that point.

02:57:25,267	S4:
So does it stay process that we have to follow to sell property and so we can put an RFP out?

02:57:30,767	S7:
The question is like.

02:57:32,701	S4:
It'll be advertised and it'll have to be advertised for at least two weeks through state sources as well. Um, but the important thing to keep in mind is that you can sell property and either just seek the highest price, or you can sell property and say, we want this property to do X, Y, or Z and have the RFP reflect what you want that property to how you want that property to perform. Um, the guidance I'm getting so far from the task force is that that's the direction they want us to look at.

02:57:58,200	S7:
Who else don't. So Rosie's on it with you.

02:58:00,200	S4:
Rosie's on it. John McGrath's on it. We have, um, finance director, DPW director, uh, members of the Patent Homestead um, Foundation with the Friends of Patent Homestead now, but they used to be Batten Homestead, Inc.. Um, they've been working with the town since the town accepted the gift to try to help us find the best use of the property. Okay. Um, so they've been involved with it, and, uh, I have the recreation director on because he's currently programming the space.

02:58:26,400	S7:
And we're there. I mean, they they they gave it to the town to, like, look after it, basically. Is that the gist of it?

02:58:33,467	S4:
They gave it to the town to maintain it, and they made it a big gift to the town. but and and quite frankly, honestly, the gift has been great to town because we were able to separate off acreage and create Patent Ridge. Patent Ridge is one of the highest performing tax bases in the town, uh, for a condo property and does really well and.

02:58:53,400	S1:
Not a lot of town services paid.

02:58:54,968	S4:
A lot of time. Well, you guys changed that. You gave him trash, after all. He wound up changing it anyway. But, um, so we're doing.

02:59:02,667	S9:
We're at the gift. Clearly defined future, you know, like. Yeah, sure. You. So I think we're, like, doesn't go back to the family. If we tried to change it to.

02:59:13,000	S11:
Say.

02:59:13,167	S4:
No, if we if there's a percent. So if we try to sell it for for anything else, the family gets to direct half of the half of the benefit to another, to a charitable endeavor of their choosing. Um, our understanding is that, uh, this sale could be eased by the fact that the the patent, the patent family would be. So they would just have to come with the half that they would have to give to us, and the family is going to let. That's that's what they've represented so far. So if that.

02:59:42,567	S7:
Gets written down and that becomes part of a deal and that so that I just like I'm thinking back to other deals.

02:59:48,801	S9:
Oh write down half the amount. Yeah. But it would stay with use towards the the wishes of the family.

02:59:55,467	S4:
Right. And so that's why exactly.

02:59:57,267	S5:
Yeah. That that's exactly correct. It'll it'll continue to fulfill the purposes of the original gift.

03:00:04,400	S9:
So that's why I'm not sure why it half comes off.

03:00:07,367	S7:
Because why else would.

03:00:10,267	S4:
We get the half that we. So they would say that it gets valued at. He goes, so part of the process is that I have to have two appraisals done, and I have to put together an RFP for the for what we want the uses to be. Right. That restricts their ability to do anything beyond that when they buy it. Right. So that's going to decrease the value quote unquote. But it will it will target us toward the uses that the original gift were intended to create. So we're giving it to somebody that can do what we cannot have not been able to do since 2012.

03:00:40,167	S9:
Yeah. And what are the buildings?

03:00:41,868	S4:
It'll be the main building where the town hall is currently located. And then the stable and the barn. Now, we are still currently sort of storing some things there in the stable. And they've suggested that part of the part of the the deal would be that they'd be willing to lease back portions of that for us, for our use for a period of time, um, to help us continue to maintain the property and things like that.

03:01:03,901	S7:
So is it. And this is like, sorry, this is the first time we've done something like this since I've been here. Like in terms of, like going to the town where we don't quite have a plan or a deal together yet versus like having a deal and then having the town vote.

03:01:17,100	S4:
The town has to authorize the sale of property, but they can do it subject to terms and conditions as set by the select board. So that's basically what we're thinking about doing. Or or you can say we want to make a report out to the annual town meeting on the floor at such and such a day on April 11th, and then we will come back to a future town meeting special or whatever, and get the authorization later. It would be more expedient to make the sale happen in calendar year 26 if we did it the first way. But you can obviously obviously say we need to do it the second way.

03:01:48,868	S7:
It's your choice. I, I think we should have both options on the table as we continue to learn more about this. Just as much as the town seems to care a lot about what happens with each individual like property, especially something that's historic, I would say it would seem as a part of like a natural order that I'm witnessing, that people would really want to have a participate in that, you know. But I, I think we as a Selectboard should keep both those options on the table as long as we can before taking it out of the hands of the town based on what I've experienced.

03:02:28,167	S11:
Okay.

03:02:28,667	S7:
But I don't know if you all have been here longer than me. It fits. This is better fits in with in keeping with the kind of natural order of things for us to make this decision. Uh.

03:02:39,767	S1:
I mean, I guess that is what you're asking. We we the to sell something. You don't need to know who's buying it. Is that what you're saying? Yeah.

03:02:49,467	S7:
It seems like. It's like. It's like what? I'm. What? What I'm saying is that right now, it's a piece of land that's owned by the town, right? Yeah. And that the town's people seem to care a lot about what happens with.

03:03:01,100	S4:
Some do some.

03:03:01,767	S7:
New uses, some do and some don't. Yeah, I don't know.

03:03:04,868	S4:
So if we have some people that are more concerned about how much the town spends maintaining the property every year, they want us to get rid of that cost center. So but we just did this with the with the sale of the cell tower lease. We went out and said, does the Select board have permission to sell? Would you extend it so that the airport could sell and the time? And he said yes. They didn't know who the buyer was.

03:03:22,868	S1:
Going to be. That was.

03:03:23,667	S11:
Right. Yeah.

03:03:24,901	S7:
I mean like cell towers a little different than but we don't homestead.

03:03:27,667	S1:
We never know who the buyer is when we authorized the sale. Yeah. Ever because we first got authorize the sale and then you make the deal.

03:03:34,868	S9:
But. So. But it depends. I mean, you guys, it sounds like you're a lot further down the path with this one buyer, but.

03:03:40,667	S1:
But that wouldn't be part of the vote, though. Tell me who the buyer was.

03:03:44,067	S9:
But I think that's what he's leaving open.

03:03:45,567	S1:
I know we're doing the best.

03:03:46,868	S9:
In town for the.

03:03:47,567	S1:
Fact. I don't think we've ever done it that way. So the question is, was impressed. He's asking what Preston is. Preston is. We've never known the buyer when we authorize the sale.

03:03:55,167	S7:
Right.

03:03:57,100	S1:
We could do it.

03:03:57,701	S17:
That's just.

03:03:58,100	S5:
A general authorization.

03:03:59,667	S17:
Right?

03:04:00,067	S1:
He's right. We could do it that way. I'm not saying I do it the way, but you're asking the general question. What have we done in the past? We've never known the buyer when we authorize the sale.

03:04:06,701	S7:
Have we sold.

03:04:07,200	S17:
Buildings?

03:04:07,801	S5:
It's general authorization.

03:04:09,300	S4:
I can't speak to that. I don't think seven years.

03:04:10,801	S9:
I've been anything.

03:04:11,467	S1:
It was sold like properties. Yeah, we sold, like, landlocked properties.

03:04:16,567	S9:
And those, did those go to town floor or were they just.

03:04:19,000	S1:
Yeah, they had to do. Any time.

03:04:19,868	S4:
Yeah. You got you had previously for a bunch of landlocked. You have a bunch of small piece of property.

03:04:25,000	S1:
And goes out.

03:04:25,567	S4:
To it and it and.

03:04:26,501	S1:
It goes.

03:04:26,801	S4:
You authorize it Authorizer back in. I don't remember what year it was. There was a time when you vote to authorize a bunch of them in the Select board. Sold some those off and on over the years. A couple of times it's come up. Hey, could the neighbor wants to know if they could bid on this piece of property next to theirs? It's town owned or. We have to check. Oh, it's been authorized. Yeah, we can do it. Somebody recently came to us about a piece of property that hasn't previously been authorized, and we said, well, we have to go to town meeting first. And they're like, yeah, never mind.

03:04:50,767	S11:
That would not.

03:04:51,467	S9:
But it sounded like when you guys started, you were saying you wanted to present this foundation and everything on the town floor, but now you're saying, no, we don't have to know or say who?

03:05:01,167	S11:
The buyer, I think I think we were the.

03:05:02,968	S4:
Task force has talked about, you know, providing justification to town, meaning why we're recommending a sale and what our goals are. And so we could talk about this potential buyer. And by by the time we get to April, the RFP will have been out, and we will have a sense of if this is a viable thing, this type of thing where if it feels like it's falling apart, I say, we vote no action on town meeting floor and abandon it if it's not going to work out. But if to the extent that we can provide information on meeting. I'm not opposed to that. But generally all you're seeking is a general authorization by me to authorize the select board to go forward and find a buyer.

03:05:37,767	S9:
But the lack of discussion at this level leading into April is, is is a little bit.

03:05:42,767	S1:
Yeah. No, it seems troublesome. It seems quick.

03:05:44,601	S9:
Yeah. Okay. I mean, you guys may feel differently because you're at meetings and stuff, but.

03:05:48,801	S11:
No, I.

03:05:50,167	S9:
Oh we do.

03:05:51,100	S17:
Yeah.

03:05:51,367	S4:
We meant we so I, we.

03:05:52,968	S9:
Had an opportunity. We left in August I think we, we said go make a force and then.

03:05:57,801	S1:
It seems quick. But once again we're going to the town as if timing is important. If the buyers if the RFP goes out, the buyer says, we have to find a spot before your next meeting so you don't have to buy this one or you have to buy another one, then we can decide if we, as.

03:06:12,801	S9:
We should have been talking about this 3 or 4 more times prior to this date.

03:06:16,200	S1:
Right? Yeah. No not.

03:06:17,100	S7:
Yeah.

03:06:17,200	S9:
There's nothing didn't just happen overnight.

03:06:19,100	S7:
Can this be a special town meeting if we.

03:06:21,367	S4:
Yeah, we could we could do it as a special.

03:06:23,200	S9:
It might be the best thing. It sounds like so. Um, Rosie's going on. She's on it. I just want to talk about it as a group.

03:06:30,000	S11:
Yep.

03:06:30,767	S7:
Just don't say we couldn't do it in June or July or something like that. Not that we want to start lining up special meetings again.

03:06:37,400	S1:
Yeah, I can't, I don't we don't.

03:06:39,501	S4:
I don't want to.

03:06:40,000	S1:
Do one. We don't.

03:06:40,767	S17:
Have any.

03:06:41,167	S1:
Special time.

03:06:41,701	S17:
Meeting. I think we've.

03:06:42,868	S5:
We had enough special time meetings last year to last us for the next ten.

03:06:47,367	S17:
Years.

03:06:48,267	S4:
I want to do it all in one. I don't want to do multiples.

03:06:51,100	S1:
But job, you tell us there's some timing crunch. I don't know what.

03:06:53,467	S9:
Else you don't get the answer you want, right? No, no.

03:06:57,167	S4:
I mean, that wasn't me.

03:06:58,968	S17:
I'm just.

03:06:59,567	S5:
Don't start. Bell.

03:07:02,501	S9:
Yeah, we're all getting punchy. It's 1010.

03:07:04,467	S1:
Oh, sorry.

03:07:05,100	S17:
Do I should we should do I, should I make them.

03:07:07,267	S1:
Yes please.

03:07:07,901	S5:
Yes yes yes I make a motion that we adjourn.

03:07:10,901	S1:
I have a second. Second, uh, roll call vote. Rosemary.

03:07:15,567	S5:
Rosie Kennedy, I, um.

03:07:18,567	S2:
Tom Myers.

03:07:19,200	S1:
Hi, Bill.

03:07:20,100	S9:
Bill Wilson, I Ben Ben.

03:07:22,000	S1:
William Olson, I mean is adjourned.